Wood waste

One of yesterday's principal chores was cleaning up the firewood processing area, which was a huge mess of bark, woodchips, etc. Spent some quality time with a shovel and wheelbarrow. Fortunately, I have a low area I'm trying to level off in the backyard, so the waste winds up as perfect fill.

No matter how many times I go through this drill, I'm always struck by the quantity of wasted biomass. I estimate that 1 wheelbarrow=about 4 cu. ft. I did 10 loads. That amounts to about 1/3 a cord of waste!

Same here!

I did exactly the same yesterday picked up all the bark from the wood I have been splitting and took it over to dump under the trees hopefully it will break down quickly with fungal and insect action.
Lots of weight in that stuff too, I just find it a lot cleaner and faster drying when I remove the bark, it probably has a heat value but I don't care.

I keep all that stuff for kindling. Works great for starting up fires, and for getting a low fire going again.

just did some of that too--I pick out a bucket of wood (not bark) pieces for kindling and through the rest in the compost pile--the bark is usually too dirt to bring in the house

compost it! Use it on your gardens in a couple years, it works pretty well. Wood(and ash) is loaded with potassium.

I use the leftovers from oak, hickory and cherry for cooking outside. Start it early and throw on a few bigger pieces from knots and the like. Waiting for it to get cooler and little damper to render lard for pie crusts.

RATHRBCUTN said:

I keep all that stuff for kindling. Works great for starting up fires, and for getting a low fire going again.

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Ditto. Any piece of bark 10" or longer gets tossed in the kindling pile. I also burn a lot of the stubs, esp. this time of year when the the woodstove doesn't need to do too much heavy lifting.

Yup, amazing how much junk is left over. WE generaly process into rounds over the winter then split a year later in the spring so it has all summer to dry once split. Not much bark makes it's way through plus all the chips and splinters. If we are splitting and the OWB is burning the froth goes into the OWB. If it gets wet it goes into areas for fill just like yours. We would burn it all if we had no close neighbors. Wet "biomass" makes like LOTS of smoke.

i also keep the bigger pieces to burn. what i started doing this year was ;aying a tarp down, then park the splitter on the tarp. nice easy clean up that way. i burn some of it in the "pit" in the yard sometimes, some of it gets tossed in the back or at the dump depends how ambitious i feel lol.

55chevyparts said:

I use the leftovers from oak, hickory and cherry for cooking outside. Start it early and throw on a few bigger pieces from knots and the like. Waiting for it to get cooler and little damper to render lard for pie crusts.

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good idea!

husky455rancher said:

i also keep the bigger pieces to burn. what i started doing this year was ;aying a tarp down, then park the splitter on the tarp. nice easy clean up that way. i burn some of it in the "pit" in the yard sometimes, some of it gets tossed in the back or at the dump depends how ambitious i feel lol.

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Awesome idea. Not practical for us, however. I'm a scrounger thu and thru. I'll get a Ranger load here and there and usually split it all within a week of getting a load. If it's early enough in the season, the splits go into the "this year" pile. The truckload of red oak, ash, and poplar I split on Sat. got tossed into the growing mountain (ok, more like a foothill) destined to go up the stovepipe in 2009-10.

As a result, the pile of biomass gets bigger so gradually I hardly notice it!

Anyone try one of those cheap wood chippers like they got at lowes/home depot? i have been toying with the idea of getting one and chipping up all my bark to use as mulch around the flower gardens in the yard. I buy enough of this stuff it would pay to have my own chipper if they worked good enough. I have heard that they are rather limited in what size you can shove through them though, I guess that would really suck to have to bust up all your bark just to get it through a chipper.

i would think the small chipper would be ok for that. i mean anything of any real size is gonna go in the stove anyway right?

I have too much on my landing to collect it and store it for kindling. I typically call my neighbor to come down with his cub cadet and scrape my landing clear once a year and dump the waste on the brush pile. Saves me a day with the shovel and trailer.

early this year when i was all hot and heavy in firewood mode i had a full truck load worth sitting on tarps. i loaded it all in the 2500 and took it to the dump. thats just too much to get rid of on my land as i only have 1/3 acre.

husky455rancher said:

i also keep the bigger pieces to burn. what i started doing this year was ;aying a tarp down, then park the splitter on the tarp. nice easy clean up that way. i burn some of it in the "pit" in the yard sometimes, some of it gets tossed in the back or at the dump depends how ambitious i feel lol.

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I built a 'patio' for my splitter for this purpose. I had a bunch of 9X18 pavers from freecycle.org, and just laid them out on some leveled dirt. I park the spitter on it (now that it's back from the shop!), and plan to do my spitting there just to make it easier to clean up. I was building up too much mulch where I had been splitting. The hard surface will make it easy to sweep and shovel.

I use the wood chips for kindling, but I produce more kindkling than I need. (Once cold weather is really here, the fire doesn't go out much.)

Good idea about using it on the barbecue. I just discovered grilling over oak this summer, and plan to do a lot more. I can probably dispense completely with buying charcoal.

I get a fire going with good dry stuff, brush and what have you, and load all the waste on there, by morning its just a wee little pile of ash, and that goes on the ant hills in the grass.

My splitting areas have to be clean, since I use a two stage snowblower to keep it all accessible in the winter and getting wood/bark sucked up means a busted pin, or dangerous projectile.

I looked at plans for making charcoal awhile back and have been considering that. After the tornado that went through here in May there is plenty of free wood to get and play with. Lots of people around who just want it gone. When I get the chance I run out and cut. Drive for ten minutes and fill trailer in one spot.

The processor puts out so much sawdust, and the splitter makes so many splinters and bark chips, that I usually spend an hour at the end of the day just to clean up!. The nicer kindling pieces get bagged and are given to our firewood buyers, the sawdust is shoveled into a small trailer and spread on my 23 acre treefarm, the bark and splinters are burned in burn-barrels (my eternal flame) and the ashes spread like the sawdust (when cooled). If I don't do this often, I'd soon be :censored: -deep in biomass.

I sure wish we had a papermill, wood pellet factory, or biomass powerplant nearby to make use of this stuff .

Wood Waste Turned Into Cash

You Guys are living in pioneer times. Have you priced a load of sawdust lately? Big bucks. Know why? Housing starts are down not much need for lumber as there was a couple of years ago. Not many mills sawing and not much sawdust available. Who needs sawdust? Every pellet and pressed sawdust manufacturer. What do you need? A good chipper, a good hammermill, a dryer, and a truck to deliver it. You can use sawdust from a chainsaw, bark, saplings, ends, brush, slabs, waste from a firewood processor, and lots of other stuff. Where can you get this equipment? Well I'm not gonna make it that easy for you as I am in this business and making a fortune. The equipment is available offshore but you need someone who knows what and where to buy.