I quit using my chipper.

[Dirtmechanic]

The machine is a workhorse, but loud, dusty and a tad dangerous. It certainly wears me out to use it all day. Because we have an acidic clay, that is washed with water where it loses its liming compounds and other needful things, I have gone another way. Which happily occasional a cold adult beverage! The charcoal and ashes left over are very good additions to the compost pile, lawn and garden. And soo mich less effort! That is the happy part.

 

[Zeedman]

I miss my shredder, and would still be using it if the bearings had not turned red hot & frozen up. My soil is slightly alkaline, so it benefited from the organic matter. Whenever I think of it (thanks for the reminder) I've been watching Craig's list for a more heavy-duty replacement... something more like a low-end version of what the tree trimmers use. The back of my lot is heavily wooded, there are always dead trees & fallen branches to deal with.

Until then, whatever is too small to be used for fire wood goes to the burn pit. At some point, I intend to sift through the ashes (and nails) to recover the charcoal, which will be added to the gardens. Since I usually put the fire out when leaving it unattended, there is a lot of charcoal buried there.

Is that taro in the background?

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I miss my shredder, and would still be using it if the bearings had not turned red hot & frozen up. My soil is slightly alkaline, so it benefited from the organic matter. Whenever I think of it (thanks for the reminder) I've been watching Craig's list for a more heavy-duty replacement... something more like a low-end version of what the tree trimmers use. The back of my lot is heavily wooded, there are always dead trees & fallen branches to deal with.

Until then, whatever is too small to be used for fire wood goes to the burn pit. At some point, I intend to sift through the ashes (and nails) to recover the charcoal, which will be added to the gardens. Since I usually put the fire out when leaving it unattended, there is a lot of charcoal buried there.

Is that taro in the background?

Upright Ears, so one form yes. I do not know the official name. We have a tall magnolia that shades too much so I gave into a couple of garden areas last year an have been experimenting with what will grow under and around that north side shadow.

 

[flowerbug]

i've never had one and while i thought at one time it would have been good to have one i figured out that it just isn't worth it. whatever wood that i get from trimming trees or bushes i just cut into chunks and pile around the edges of the yard or if it is small enough i bury it.

if we could tolerate smoke i'd be making biochar with any wood. making biochar is like making charcoal but with more controlled conditions so you get the proper results and much less waste of materials, also with making biochar you can capture the wood gas and use that as an energy source instead of letting it escape.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

i've never had one and while i thought at one time it would have been good to have one i figured out that it just isn't worth it. whatever wood that i get from trimming trees or bushes i just cut into chunks and pile around the edges of the yard or if it is small enough i bury it.

if we could tolerate smoke i'd be making biochar with any wood. making biochar is like making charcoal but with more controlled conditions so you get the proper results and much less waste of materials, also with making biochar you can capture the wood gas and use that as an energy source instead of letting it escape.

I have been looking at the 30 gallon drum inside a 55 gallon drum retort design. They say you get about 10 burns out of it before the high heat destroys the metals. I presume through a combo of rusting and melting. They glow red for sure. Here in our wet climate I lose metal bbqs unless they have been enameled like a weber kettle. But then the wood has to be chopped and crammed into both barrels. Since I came to understand that the charcoal will continue to oxidize in the earth, slowly, I came to the conclusion just burn it. That a good hot fire makes little smoke because of woodgas, and when that flame recedes the wood is essentially charcoal lets me hit it with a hose and shovel it up.

 

[flowerbug]

I have been looking at the 30 gallon drum inside a 55 gallon drum retort design. They say you get about 10 burns out of it before the high heat destroys the metals. I presume through a combo of rusting and melting. They glow red for sure. Here in our wet climate I lose metal bbqs unless they have been enameled like a weber kettle. But then the wood has to be chopped and crammed into both barrels. Since I came to understand that the charcoal will continue to oxidize in the earth, slowly, I came to the conclusion just burn it. That a good hot fire makes little smoke because of woodgas, and when that flame recedes the wood is essentially charcoal lets me hit it with a hose and shovel it up.

if i had tolerance for any smoke at all i'd be looking into building a rocket stove to use outside in the summer. alas, smoke makes me miserable. i love fire/fires, as a kid i was a bit of a fire bug, but as an adult i can only watch fires on youtube... no grilling. biochar and charcoal have always been interesting to me and i've done some primitive attempts, but that's as far as i got before deciding that i really was quite ok with burying things or letting them rot on the surface. the soil community and other wildlife do a good job of breaking down wood here, we get enough rains.

 

[Marie2020]

The machine is a workhorse, but loud, dusty and a tad dangerous. It certainly wears me out to use it all day. Because we have an acidic clay, that is washed with water where it loses its liming compounds and other needful things, I have gone another way. Which happily occasional a cold adult beverage! The charcoal and ashes left over are very good additions to the compost pile, lawn and garden. And soo mich less effort! That is the happy part. View attachment 36770View attachment 36771

Good to learn that thanks. I have a solid clay soil so will try to get hold of charcoal maybe this will help

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Good to learn that thanks. I have a solid clay soil so will try to get hold of charcoal maybe this will help

Don't use it fresh. Let it age, like in a compost pile or bucket of kitchen scraps. It has a great deal of surface area and soaks up too much initially like burying wood chips. I have places with thin soil over chirty rock so my game is building layers that wont just disappear like compost will do over a year or so. The charcoal is far more permanent. The rockiness is also why I don't dig digging to bury wood or I would have buried wood long ago. I have 8 or 9 piles of firewood to go.

 

[Marie2020]

Don't use it fresh. Let it age, like in a compost pile or bucket of kitchen scraps. It has a great deal of surface area and soaks up too much initially like burying wood chips. I have places with thin soil over chirty rock so my game is building layers that wont just disappear like compost will do over a year or so. The charcoal is far more permanent. The rockiness is also why I don't dig digging to bury wood or I would have buried wood long ago. I have 8 or 9 piles of firewood to go.

Thanks for this. I will be making sure I collect from my nieghbors when they burn wood, sorry to be so uninformed but with a burnt paper be ok as well?

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Thanks for this. I will be making sure I collect from my nieghbors when they burn wood, sorry to be so uninformed but with a burnt paper be ok as well?

It is all carbon in the the end. Some commercial\industrial material will have a small amount of metals, but I do not know of man made chemical materials in boxes and paper that are not consumed by fire. Periodic chart natural elements obviously will remain, but that's why we call them elemental.