weirds and kindling

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I made up two of these to control shorts & uglies. 4 pallets screwed together, a couple of 2x4s and a little "roof" made from strapping and a piece of tarp.

ugliesbin.jpg
 
First year burning so no set habits from me. My plan is to get a couple of the 275 gallon IBC tote skids with the metal frame for any chunks and uglies I encounter this year. A local place that sells them usually has a couple where the plastic tank has busted but the skid is still good and they'll usually sell them pretty reasonably. Kindling will probably go in one of the big Rubbermaid tubs under the deck.
 
I throw them in a pile and then either use for campfire wood or burn in the shoulder season. I HATE having shorts in the pile, messes up my stacks.
 
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I gather most up and take them to the landscape landfill. Somebody appreciates them because they're usually gone in a few days. I can help,somebody and get them out of my sight.:)
 
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The "uglies" go into a pile for bonfires. Nothing really huge. We usually burn inside an old tractor rim. My kids love that spring/summer/fall pastime. So if they are helping me haul and stack, they ask for pieces or splits to go to the ulglies pile. Sometimes they ask as often as every few splits I handle. To them, it has become a game. I hate to think that we wouln't have much actual firewood and one heck of an uglies pile if the choice were theirs alone! !!! I guess we are all pyros at heart, eh? I'm sure that in a few years, I'll look back on them helping out and remember them trying to bargain away my splits with a warm heart. They grow up so fast.
 
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Good ideas here. I installed an insert this winter anticipating that the electric company would be cutting down six or seven large Ash trees on my property. They took down the first two in December.

I've just started working on the piles and it looks like I'll get two cords easy from the these two. Unfortunately there will also be a lot of shorts and uglies. A lot of their cuts were four to six inches too long for my insert so I have lots of trimmings from those. Also, these trees were 28 and 34 inches wide at the base and they cut the widest part in a bunch of eight to twelve inch slices. So those are going to split into really short chunks.

I'm going to wrap some wire fencing around a pallet and throw all the chunks I get from splitting up those slabs in there. Once they've seasoned I'll put them in a trash can to bring up to the house and use to load the insert for overnights.
 
I put 'uglies' on the top of my pallets. When I have more uglies than tops.. I leave them off to the side of the splitting pile. I throw them ontop of good coal beds. Yes.. burning undried wood isn't efficient.. but so is stacking those stupid pieces.

So.. I get some heat out of them, and my pallets are full up with nice, squared off wood.

JP
 
I throw 'em on top of the stack, so if I want something for a campfire or to get some brush going later in the summer, its easy to find the "weird" stuff and use it up.
 
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