As I cut and split, I generally clean up the area but making 400+ cords of wood since last year makes a lot of bark and splitter scraps- especially when I use my TW6 and 6 way wedge. Also, some logs come in that have been down long enough that bark just peels right off. I kept adding and adding to this pile until it reached massive size (70-80 cubic yards). I process all of my wood at my moms. She has 8 acres, 3 of which are woods which back up to state forest so it feels like 100’s of wooded acres. I was telling her I had to do something with the bark and splitter scrap pile when she said something I never thought I’d hear her say...”why don’t you just dump it in our woods. It will eventually turn to soil.” We have a road cut in a couple hundred feet so we would never see it from the house. So I talked to my brother about getting the backhoe from the farm he works on. Today was the day. The guy who brought the backhoe also ran it while I just ran dump truck loads into the woods. 11 dump truck loads and just under an hour and a half, and it was all gone! I’m beyond excited about this. Not only did I get rid of the pile but now I have more room for wood! I gave the guy $100 and a 30 pack of Coors Light.
That looks much gooder jrider . We do most of our processing at my best friends acreage so plenty of places to get rid of it. Need to haul it out of my backyard when I process here at my house in town.
Thts a lotta compost. Ive often wondered what you do with all the wood processing crumbs. Most of mine keep the mud level down. When i process in my driveway it gets raked and into the woods. Ill occasionally blow out the back of my PU backed into the woods.
Seems like you could get a shredder to run it through and then sell for mulch or compost and get some more $$ from your operation. Might not be worth the effort and expense. I’m sure it’s crossed your mind though
Some farmers making landscaping plants from cuttings use lots and lots of ground up and composted bark for potting medium. I had a pile and there must be lots of nutrients in it, when I went to move the pile it was full of tree roots. It hadn't been there but around 6 months.
From now on, I will be burning it (in a half of an old oil tank) as I make it. Never getting a pile this big again!
How this whole pile got out of control in the first place was I had about 25 cords of tulip poplar logs I let sit around for close to a year. By the time I got to cutting and splitting them just about all of the bark peeled off in huge sheets. I didn’t know what to do with it so I just started piling it up and I never got ahead of it again until yesterday.
That's a lot of bark! Glad you were able to get rid of it and make room. A few years back, I had some bark left in my stacks as burning season was winding down. I tossed a bunch of bark in the stove on some coals and went about cleaning outside a bit. It smoked for a few minutes then took off...and really took off! The stove temp shot up to almost the 'red zone'. Thankfully, it burned out quickly. But there can be some hidden BTUs in bark!
I often burn that stuff...some in the stove or furnace, some (most) in the firepit...but I only make 4-5 cords per year too, not 200! I have been working on my most recent pile all summer...guess we need to use the firepit more often...surprising how long a little bark and splitter trash burns though! I would think it would be gone in a couple hours...well, I guess if I wanted a huge fire, it would be, but my firepit is starting to be under the outer edges of a nice maple tree, and I don't want to burn the leaves off it with a huge fire. (did that once ) When I'm cleaning this stuff off the concrete driveway (my processing area generally) the fines go on a flowerbed as "mulch"...it seems like pretty good stuff...there are always a bunch of earthworms in it if its been there long at all. Nice solution jrider
I back my little garden cart next to the splitter and toss in most of the scraps as I go. When it’s full I spread it on the atv trail. That wouldn’t work for an operation your size tho
