What do you do with this bark
- Thread starter Wisneaky
- Start date
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? maybe take it back to the woods the next time you go to get more wood for your basement?? ? you might not want to burn the bark if you don't know what's in it? for putting the bark in the trash, well, I just don't know about that?? then again you might use it for mulch in the wife's flower garden?? or you could make a spot for rover to do his/her job in and make it easier to hide with a rake?? or just throw it over the fence to your favorite neighbor?? it's really endless with what you can do with bark.... just don't let it get to loud after 10pm!
I like the one about throw it over the fence to favorite neighbor. I might just do that.
I call it "the sweepin's"... bits of bark, chips, grass, dirt, snake skin, the occasional dead mouse (just kiddin') and whatnot. I sweep it up every few days or so, keep a bucket down by the furnace to dump it in, and dispose of it the same way I do ash... I dump it in the woodlot or crop field, depending. It will burn just fine (mostly anyway), but it makes a lot more ash, smoke and stink than heat... I stopped throwin' it in the firebox several years ago. Bark makes ashes... lots of them... lots more than wood.
There's always a few slivers of "real" wood in the sweepin's. During the real early and late parts of the season I'll pick some of them out'a the dust pan before dumping in the bucket... they work good for tossin' on top of handful of hot coals before loadin' the bigger stuff. This time of year I don't bother... the coal bed never gets that small (unless we have a "January Thaw" warm spell like the last few days).
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There's always a few slivers of "real" wood in the sweepin's. During the real early and late parts of the season I'll pick some of them out'a the dust pan before dumping in the bucket... they work good for tossin' on top of handful of hot coals before loadin' the bigger stuff. This time of year I don't bother... the coal bed never gets that small (unless we have a "January Thaw" warm spell like the last few days).
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aarolar
ArboristSite Operative
I sweep it up and sling it straight into the stove outta the dust pan.
SteveSS
Addicted to ArboristSite
Compost pile or brush pile.
Why not just toss it in the fire? Its right there, it will burn. Seems silly to toss it in the trash. You could use it as compost, but again, why not just burn it. I get maybe a dust pan full a week. Its not that much material
I get a lot more than that.
Since I "stockpile" my whole winter's worth of firewood in the basement before heating season begins there's a lot of it as ya' pull from the stacks (especially when you finish a stack). I get a dust pan (or two) heaping full every few days... I fill a 5-gallon bucket in a couple weeks or so depending on how much we're burning (I can fill the bucket just cleaning up after finishing a stack). It smokes, stinks and makes a lot of ash... burning it means emptying the ash drawer more often, meaning handling it twice, and for little or no heating benefit.
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Cheesecutter
Addicted to ArboristSite
I let it pile up nice and deep so it gives me the feeling of being in the woods when its to cold and crappy out.
Just kidding ... I would put it in the stove.
Just kidding ... I would put it in the stove.
brenndatomu
Hey you woodchucks, quit chucking my wood!
Me too
pretty soon I might have enough for my own forest floor.
sunfish
Fish Head
I just throw it out the back door.
woodchuck357
Addicted to ArboristSite
Goes into a cracker box or something like it, next time I start a fire it goes into the firebox with the rest of the of the kindling.
My wife burns large pieces as bark fires, if not much heat is required. The smaller bits and pieces are used as mulch around trees. We throw wood into the basement, so we get quite a bit of stuff. Tiny pieces of wood or slivers are used to revive a few coals for fire starting.
Yep. Anything in it isn't going to hurt anything. Dirt? so what? It'll wind up in the lawn when I clean out the ashpan.
I put 3 cord on the back porch at the beginning of the season and keep it stocaked - go through 6-7 cord a year, mostly Black Locust. That is a "dirty wood" . Leaves lots of bark chips, etc. A dustpan every few days keeps the amount on the porch to a reasonable leval
Harry K
You might havea point with the smoke/stinks bit, I haven't noticed it. But not with the "handle it twice" You are handling it twice either way - once to put it in the barrel/bucket and once to throw it out. Or once to put it in the tove and then dispose of the ashes. Work involved is actually less and the ashes have a lot less bulk.
Just being nitpicky
Harry K
greendohn
firewood hack
I shovel it in the owb unless it's got a lot of "fines",ie, dirt, then it gets tossed in the garden and tilled under..come time to rake out and plant the garden I might come up with a bucket of bigger pieces, that's the stuff I burn in a slow smoldering fire in my burn ring so's I can entertain a certain worthless neighbor when a slow, gentle southwest is blowing!!
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
Depends what you're burning with too, likely.
Mine goes in my boiler, whenever I have enough to make a shovel full. I get a lot of heat out of it, long as I have a decent bed of coals.
My old boiler didn't burn it worth crap - I ended up shoveling most of it into a garbage barrel then wheeling it outside & dumping it under a tree when winter was over. I used to try, but it made coals build up worse than ever (ooops..).
Mine goes in my boiler, whenever I have enough to make a shovel full. I get a lot of heat out of it, long as I have a decent bed of coals.
My old boiler didn't burn it worth crap - I ended up shoveling most of it into a garbage barrel then wheeling it outside & dumping it under a tree when winter was over. I used to try, but it made coals build up worse than ever (ooops..).
OK... so I shouldn't have said twice, it should'a been three times... since we get to be nitpicky
The ashes get handled twice... once to dump the drawer in the metal garbage can, once to dump the can.
The sweepin's get handled twice also... once to dump in the bucket, once to dump the bucket.
But if I toss the sweepin's in the fire box I handle them three times... once to dump them in the firebox, once to dump the ash drawer in the metal garbage can, once to dump the can.
And... don't forget... the ash drawer fills up faster‼ Meaning I have to dump both it and the metal garbage can more often. The way it is now, most of the time I dump both the metal can and the bucket at the same time... about every two weeks or so. I set both of them them in the little trailer behind the little tractor and head on out... one trip for both receptacles. But if I burned the sweepin's I'd need to make more trips to empty the metal can
And yeah... I'm just bein' nitpicky
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