Good Idea?

Peat

This is one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" episodes. As we were driving along a wild and remote stretch of narrow road on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, as we were marveling at the relatively flat treeless heather-covered bogs, as Mike was pretending he had become proficient at driving on the wrong side of the road shifting a manual transmission with the wrong hand, our extra small sub compact car suddenly screeched to a halt.

Mike immediately jumps out of the vehicle, hops over a locked gate into a fenced field, and strikes out across a peat bog bound for a couple of fresh piles of hand cut peat blocks. Peat is created largely from sphagnum moss and when the plant dies its remains do not fully decompose in the bog’s acid waters, and so the dead moss becomes buried and turns into peat. It has been used for centuries to warm homes and fire whiskey distilleries. Peat covers 20% of the land in Scotland, a much higher percentage on this isle. His phone in hand, taking video along the way, Mike neglects to watch his step. Let's just say he is lucky he did not become another bog body (human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog). Hate when that happens.