Nut Shell piggy

[Snowy Rivers]

Got a nice day today (threatening to rain) and decided to take advantage of the oportunity and fill the storage drums with nut shells.

The processing plant will be finishing up the crop from the fall very soon so timing was important.

Got about 2500# this run which makes a very small pile in the truck.
I filled everything that was empty so I can get through the final part of this season and be ready for fall.

One piccy shows the scoop and the screened bottom bucket that I strain the shells through.

Very common to find sticks of varying sizes in the material. These little devils can jam an auger.

"ASK ME HOW I KNOW THIS" :ahhh: 20 years ago, I had a stick jam the feed system on a Earth stove we had and break the coupler.
I was 2 am on a Sunday morning too, and a cold one at that.


Here are some piccy's of todays little Shell piggy expedition.

These are the good ones that are fairly coarse as far as size goes.

The stuff I got back in December was from a different supplier and is much finer.

The larger material burns far better in the stoves with less fly ash

Snowy

 

[smoke show]

send some this way.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Thats a long ways my friend.



I only had a 4 mile drive so it does not cost much for the transportation.


The best part of the whole deal was that the load of shells cost me $35

Makes me sleep good at night and keeps my checkbook happy too.

Snowy

 

[imacman]

.....The best part of the whole deal was that the load of shells cost me $35

Makes me sleep good at night and keeps my checkbook happy too. Snowy

That's a he** of a deal Snowy......you've hit a goldmine there.

 

[jtakeman]

That's some cheap heat! For $35 you heat your house for a few months. I spend that in a week! Nice deal you have going there. Your making many of us very jealous!

 

[JustWood]

NICE Rock dump!
What kind of nuts?

 

[Dr_Drum]

.....The best part of the whole deal was that the load of shells cost me $35

Makes me sleep good at night and keeps my checkbook happy too. Snowy

That's a he** of a deal Snowy......you've hit a goldmine there.

Ditto on that, I couldn't get delivery for $35.
Mike -

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Been in the dump trucking business for over 20 years now.
Had a fellow hire me back many years ago to pickup and deliver him a truck load of shells.

I did the delivery and he showed me his pellet stove, running happily on a bucket full of thr stuff.

Hazel Nut shells. Walnuts work well too as do many of the different PIts.

These shells run from the cracking plant out and through a trash fan, then into a giant hopper.

I just back under the end closest to the fan as the heavy larger stuff falls out of the air stream first.

The fines will burn but leave more fly ash.

Now dont get me wrong, I am not a greenie tree hugger, enviro freek but, I do like the idea of using a fully renewable resource that is basically trash and must be dispossed as a waste product.

You must have a means to store the stuff (containers) and a way to haul it.

I just drop the trailer in the yard and go solo with the truck to do this stuff.

If I had the storage space I can haul about 20 yards of the stuff in the truck tub.

Its not real heavy either

I was able to get almost all the 2480 pounds that I bought today into the drums shown in the piccy.

I did dump about two 50 gallon drum fulls over along the edge of the drive before hooking the trailer back up. Just did not have any more room.


I have thought about a small outdoor storage but it is too costly.

With the supplier so close, I just fill up late in the season and then will buy again along about December.


Every so often I will find the little plastic 40 gallon garbage cans that have wheels at a garage sale. They work real well.

Being plastic, once empty, I can store them in the hay barn until I need them again.


I have about 10 55 gallon steel drums and the rest are cardboard.

I bought these near 20 years ago from the Nabisco bakery in Portland.
The metal drums had held cookie filling in plastic bag liners.

The cardboard drums had such stuff as flavoring for crackers and other bakery goods.

The were getting rid of them real cheap at the time.

As long as the cardboard ones dont get wet, they will last me as long as I need them.

The Advantage running on number 2 setting will burn through about 25 pounds of the stuff in a day.

This batch cost a penny and a half a pound.

Two bits a day to heat the shack, I can live with these numbers.

Much more hastle than a clean neat bag of pellets buttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Winter time is the slow time for the dump trucking business so it works.

Snowy

 

[dac122]

... Your making many of us very jealous!

Yup! As it is St. Patty's Day I am green with envy!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

When I retire the truck, not sure what I will do for hauling in the shells.

With the current economic situation I will likely not be able to retire so I guess I will not have to worry about the issue.

For us, it works, for others the situation is just not possible due to the storage space needed and the work involved or ???


As I have mentioned to family members and others, we take our pellet stoves serious around here.

Its a way of life and not just a decoration in the corner to be switched on for an eavening to add ambience.

Best

Snowy

 

[Fsappo]

Great job thinking outside of the box and taking the effort to get even greener and save money. This kind of sustainability is what this country is lacking. I just read a news story about dumpster divers...made me sick. Not the fact that they ate stuff from dumpsters, what made me sick is what we as a country throw away.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Yesssss indeed, this country wastes soooo much that it is scarry.

The idea of buy, use, toss has been bred into people over the last 60 -70 years.
The folks that lived through the "Great Depression" saved everything no matter what its condition.

Now make no mistake here, I am not into the green thing at all. I dont believe in Global warming as it is just another hoax being used to **** the people as far as I am concerned.

I am into keeping my checkbook ballanced and trying to survive.
My house was built with full electric heat and that is just plain insane to heat with $$$$$ wise.

Also the use of a crop waste product to heat with does make sense.
I have a friend that heats his house with waste engine oil. He gets all he can haul away from the little oil change places (Oil can Henry's etc). He filters it and then it goes into a huge tank and from there to the burner.

Supprising that most waste oil is not actually recycled but instead burned for fuel.

Too messy for me and the original setup is $$$$$$.

Another thing I like is the dry warmth from the pellet stove, plus you can go park your tushy in front of the thing when your cold.

Most all of the nut shells around here are bought and used to fire large industrial burners.
Not sure exactly who buys the bulk of it but Home owners with pellet stoves are a small number.

The local pellet stove dealers are advising people that they should not use this stuff but instead buy the pellets.

Thats probably good advice for many folks that can't tweek with their stove to make things work right.

Took me two hours to fabricate install and adjust the pot changes needed on the Advantage IIT so it will burn the shells without issue.

Not everyone has a small machine shop in their basement.

I will confess though, I love to tinker with stuff. If its does not need messing with, I dont like it.

Gotta have things to screw around with.

A finished project is Boring ya know.



Snowy