It kills me to burn all this kindling, but I still have 3 trash cans full from last years wood processing. And I'm not using as much kindling as I anticipated. This pile is from splitting 2 cords of wood, which seems like a lot of waste. It's too bad all this waste can't be reformed back into a big round. This is telling me there's a good size round of waste for every 2 cords I split.
I don't know if I would consider it waste. Granted it might not be in the most efficient form, but you are still burning it and using what you can for kindling. To me it is not waste unless it is getting thrown in the trash or compost. I try not to waste anything and have no problem burning scraps , shorties , nuggets , uglies and anything that comes off while processing. It might not be a perfect split but still burns and produces heat.
That’s not waste. Turn it into black gold! Biochar (a form of activated charcoal) is easy to make with just a 55 gallon burn barrel. I make it out of splitter trash, punky wood, branches, etc. woody feedstock works best. for the the tl:dw crowd essentially you 1. fill a regular burn barrel about 1/4 - 1/3 full with material. 2. light a fire. 3. Let it burn until ash just starts to form on the top of the material. 4. add another thick layer of material 5. Rinse and repeat until the barrel is full or you are out of feedstock put the fire out with water when ashes start to show on the last layer. 6. let the water sit in there overnight to ensure the fire is out. you now have basic Biochar. The video does go into how you can “charge” the Biochar with nutrients for gardening use. I sell mine back to my arborist clients.
3 trash cans full sounds like a luxury problem to me I love having a nice pile of splitter trash like that for kindling. Every year I seem to run out of kindling towards the end of the season. I end up sitting down with a few splits of pine and a hatchet and making more.
I hate running out of kindling so I go out of my way to make sure I have enough. I also make compost out of ground debris and use a hat get on spruce and pine mostly to fill IBC totes with kindling. Ive been using 2 a season. It took my 5 hours from round to finish to fill 2 of these.
I typically only need kindling for a half dozen fires a season. The only time I usually need kindling is if we go away for a weekend or similar situation. Different strokes for different folks I guess. plus I produce literally tons of feedstock from my business activities.
Most of the time i put a tarp under the splitter (mostly in the warmer weather) and crumbs go into the woods. I save black locust crumbs (no bark) in feed bags and burn them in the firepit for some nice snap crackle pop.
Looks like a nice pile to cook some brauts, hot dogs & marshmallows over. Or make up some hobo packs, dig yourself a hole line it with coals, throw in the hobo packs ( taters, onions, peppers, bacon, hamburger) & cover with coals then dig out your packs & enjoy.
I'm no chemist, or biology major, but if bio-char is so good for the soil, then to me it would seem that this is one way (among others) that a forest fire is a positive for the environment...am I wrong?
you’re not wrong that a forest fire can be good for the soil. A forest fire turns everything to ash though. It burns too hot. While ash is good in the short term it isn’t going to last 100’s of years like the biochar will. When you make biochar you’re never letting the fire get hot enough to burn the wood to completion. Basically you want to burn the gasses off but leave the carbon behind.
I haven't used kindling as much as I thought, I've kept the same fire going for days on end, and I've started several of my fires top down, which hasn't used much kindling. I also use fatwood. I'll cut fatwood into halves, because I'm frugal, and find that is enough, with minimal kindling, to get most fires going. I've never heard of hobo packs, so of course I looked it up. Are you using everyday aluminum foil, or are you using something more durable? The foil we have seems like it would be thin to be throwing on top of coals, being topped with coals, and then digging out. I'll definitely have to give that a try, maybe surprise my wife with dinner. My impulse was to reply right away asking about the video, and thought I better read on first. And here it is.. LOL I still need to watch it though. That's the nice part of posting something on this forum, you think it's about something pretty drab, and you quite often get several replies with different, and helpful, points of view.
Barcroftb, I watched the video. That is a dedicated operation, it was very interesting, I had no idea something like that would be so involved and time consuming. That is great for the environment. If I tried something like that, it would have to be a much simpler operation, as you mentioned about the basic version of it. I have an area of the yard that I've been trying to get morels to grow by dumping rinse water, and morels that are past being edible. I'm sure biochar would help.
Some pine cones require fire to spread their seeds. This world never ceases to amaze me with how different species adapt to survive and thrive. The state park and corps of engineers do scheduled burns to thin the forest floor. I've been out on the lake here when it's happened, and you have no way around the smoke, you just have to carry on. That's different to be on a lake and can't see very far because of the smoke.
I'm amazed at the amount of mostly sawdust that I have after cutting up my yearly tandem load of logs. I have a six foot wide snow bucket for my tractor and I usually get four of those in waste.
I sift my coals from the ash and add them to the chicken house litter . it keeps the odor down and the manure inoculates it into biochar . without a bacteria you simply have charcoal not biochar. then twice a year I clean the litter from the chicken house and compost it. once it compost to a nice rich dirt it goes to the garden. If you garden you could build a hugel mound in the garden with all those wood bit's
I have a row of large pine trees. Stuff like this gets thrown under them to eventually break down and re-enrichen the soil.
Yeah his process is a little on the convoluted side. You can simply mix the biochar with composted manure and top dress the area you want to improve and be done with it.
With respect this is not entirely true. Biochar is different from charcoal even without the bacteria. The major difference is it’s lighter and has millions more pores than simple charcoal. It has to do with the temperature at which both substances are made. Charcoal is typically made at around 400 degrees Celsius and good Biochar is typically made at around 600-700 degrees Celsius. As I understand it the higher temps that give biochar millions more pores. It’s the pores that give the benefits of biochar. Allowing it to store and release water, nutrients, and provide homes for beneficial microorganisms. Biochar doesn’t have much benefit for soil without being charged in some way like you described with nutrients.
