What do you do with all the garbage wood?

[GrumpyDad]

Curious what people do with all the wood that is left on the ground after having wood delivered, and then stacking it.

I have to cut mine after being delivered. Half of the pieces are just too big. Im talking 10" inches across at a minimum. So that creates more debris.

Toward the end I end up with a alot of little pieces (1" or so). I toss all of those in one pile while sorting/tossing toward the stack area. Then I pile those together and will use throughout the year. But there is still so much more viable kindling on the ground, so I take two leaf bags and filled those up. And then after that, whats left is 2 garden carts of this garbage that I just dont want to battle picking out grass,gravel, dirt, leaves so I just take it to the burn pile.

I'm half tempted to stop sorting anything but splits, and just burning the rest in a burn pile and then creating kindling as I need it. Or I'll stop stacking anything that isnt log length and at least 1" in meat.

What do you all do?

 

[Dan Freeman]

I pick the kindling pieces out and store them in garbage cans. The odds and ends, and "monkey cuts" I keep in a separate bin, with the leftover in garbage cans. When I have to go out for my weekly load of wood, I always grab some of these odds and throw some here and there into the stove. I try not to waste anything since I pay for it.

This is my kindling and odds and ends---the odds and ends overflow from that bin in the back are in the 4 garbage cans directly in front of the odds and ends bin. (I have chicken wire going up 2/3's of the way up the odds and ends bin since it can't be stacked. Helps to keep it from falling out.) I get all that crap burned by the end of the season

 

[Ashful]

I scoop it up with a front-end loader, and dump it in a big fire pit. I burn enough waste wood (aka "swarf") from processing logs, that it would probably offend most wood burners. But I'm processing enough volume that I'm not going to waste my time trying to stack odd bits.

A typical weekend of splitting firewood might generate 4 cords of CSS'd and 1 cubic yard of loose swarf in the fire pit.

 

[ericm979]

Anything kindling sized that's generated as I am splitting goes into a garbage can that I keep by the splitter and store under cover where it can dry. I have a couple year's worth of kindling now. I think this is less work and risk of injury than making kindling from splits. "uglies" (irregular or short splits) go in the space between stacks in the IBC totes to dry and get used as firewood. Non usable splits, bark and rotten wood go into a pile. The pile goes into the compost bin that the trash haulers pick up. They run it through a big grinder to make compost.

 

[peakbagger]

I try to box up small slivers of wood for kindling as my boiler needs to be relit every day (no place for coals to stay). Bark gets dumped up against a slope. I space my stacks out with a gap between the rows at the base and then fill in the gap with loose uglies (odd ahsped wood and shorts) as I stack tapering the gap as I go up. its far narrower when its at the top. That keeps air flow inside the stacks and makes them less prone to falling over.

 

[stoveliker]

Shorties are split and given to my elderly neighbors who have a SMALLL stove. They happy, and I got rid of the stuff that makes stacking awkward. So me happy too. (Plus he is a retired plumber - talk about worthy investment in a relation!)

Uglies go on top of the stacks (between the rafters of my shed).
Kindling (about a bucket per cord, hand splitting) is stored for use in the stove.
And I have about 1 face cord of less-neatly-stackable but 16" or longer stuff that I keep for my yearly firepit consumption. Just because I need to scratch that itch when I don't need heat in the home in the summer.
Oh, and bark goes on the ground behind my shed. No gutter, so the water comes down there, sometimes a lot. The bark on the ground prevents erosion.

Bottomline, there is no garbage. All has a purpose.

(And I recognize that mulching/composting/fertilizing the woods is also a proper purpose.)

 

[GrumpyDad]

Shorties are split and given to my elderly neighbors who have a SMALLL stove. They happy, and I got rid of the stuff that makes stacking awkward. So me happy too. (Plus he is a retired plumber - talk about worthy investment in a relation!)

Uglies go on top of the stacks (between the rafters of my shed).
Kindling (about a bucket per cord, hand splitting) is stored for use in the stove.
And I have about 1 face cord of less-neatly-stackable but 16" or longer stuff that I keep for my yearly firepit consumption. Just because I need to scratch that itch when I don't need heat in the home in the summer.
Oh, and bark goes on the ground behind my shed. No gutter, so the water comes down there, sometimes a lot. The bark on the ground prevents erosion.

Bottomline, there is no garbage. All has a purpose.

(And I recognize that mulching/composting/fertilizing the woods is also a proper purpose.)

Full use of the stuff. I like it. I'm actually looking for a fire pit. I am going to build one from local stone once I get my backyard area how I want it. Until then these tiny scraps filled with gravel grass and dirt go into the burn pile

 

[Ashful]

 

[GrumpyDad]

View attachment 299198

You top down fire people scare me. It's unnatural

 

[moresnow]

Burn every bit of that cwap in the fire ring. My ring is an old tractor rim with the center torched out.
Pick up a box a Super Cedars and never even think about kindling again.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Burn every bit of that cwap in the fire ring. My ring is an old tractor rim with the center torched out.
Pick up a box a Super Cedars and never even think about kindling again.

I can bring my self to use those. Way way too expensive imo

 

[Ashful]

You top down fire people scare me. It's unnatural

That's funny! I argued against the top down method in my stove, but I do often use it in the fire pit. I have a neighbor just 300 - 400 feet uphill from that fire pit, and the smoke will often follow the hill toward their house, if it's not hot enough get some elevation right off the fire pit. I find that top-down takes longer to get going, but does produce less of that "cold smoke" that hangs close to the ground, during the start-up phase. Likely the same reason Poindexter uses it to evade the smoke police in Fairbanks, as I also mentioned in that other thread.

That was the waste from 1 day of splitting, because some of the logs I was splitting turned out to be less than primo, they had sat too long before coming into my possession. Rather than stacking punky balsa, I just threw them in with the waste.

 

[kennyp2339]

All my smaller fat pieces or odd ball splits get thrown into a cylinder I made out of fencing on top of a pallet to dry, all the scraps go into the tractor bucket and dumped into the firepit, not uncommon to have a ton of debris after cutting and splitting, just like @Ashful , I dont mind having a nice big outdoor fire going at the end of the day, actually I look forward to it sometimes.

 

[Diabel]

Pick up a box a Super Cedars and never even think about kindling again.

^^^^^ what he said.

 

[moresnow]

I can bring my self to use those. Way way too expensive imo

$1 per puck. 4 starts per puck. I may use 4 pucks an entire season. At very, very most.
My wife, bless her heart, bought 100 pucks a few years ago. Got a deal on Amaz. Um? Ok.
Looking like I have 25 years worth of starts

 

[Diabel]

Few yrs back I was at a local hearth store picking up some gaskets. They had some sort of firestarter on sale (not super cedar) just some generic no name. It was 5.00 for 60 sticks. I use 1/2 stick per start. No kindling no mess. Everything other than splits go into fire pit.

 

[Ashful]

$1 per puck. 4 starts per puck. I may use 4 pucks an entire season. At very, very most.

Exactly, this. ^

I'm a worse case, but still look at it the same. We do a lot of cold starts in the shoulder season, and I also keep one in the glove box of my tractor, for starting the fire pit. I'd guess I go thru $15 - $20 worth of these things, per year.

But then I'm saving $5k+ per year in oil, in fact substantially more than that this year, if today's prices hold. Well worth $20, to save some time and frustration, in this laborious pursuit.

Try to think big picture, don't sweat the small stuff.

 

[stoveliker]

I'm with Grumpy.
I'm heating for free, and have all the necessities I need for that fire to start. Dry splitting trash and waste paper. Dry wood slivers burn nicely, quickly, and persistently after being lit by paper (or directly with the torch).

I don't see the need to spend $100 on something resulting in me having to trash what I already have. 20 years ago I bought a watch that cost me 625 (euro). I felt guilty about that. I had the money, but still. I kept telling myself it'll last 25 years, meaning it's 50 ct per month. Didn't help. (I still have and use it.)

I'm paying off my second home, I have no debt, worked my way thru (cheaper than here) college, drive a 10 y/o 10k$ car because it suffices (but bought a 32k$ Rav4 for the wife, cash, a few months ago), will likely be able to retire waaay early (if I wish so).

I got there by not spending money where it's not needed, by not consuming what I already have, (and by not using resources for something that can be done without consuming said resources). That includes the small stuff. Even if it's really small as compared to what's coming in.

To each his own. The economy is helped by it.
Some of us, though, are not "just buy and forget about it" types of people.

A big picture is made up of small pixels.

 

[GrumpyDad]

$1 per puck. 4 starts per puck. I may use 4 pucks an entire season. At very, very most.
My wife, bless her heart, bought 100 pucks a few years ago. Got a deal on Amaz. Um? Ok.
Looking like I have 25 years worth of starts

OH I didnt know you could only use 1 small piece. That will catch your small/medium splits without kindling or do you use kindling too?
I find it SUPER easy to start fires from using a wad of maybe 2-3 paper towels, packing paper, pieces of clean non painted cardboard, then a few sticks, then a few larger sticks, kinda in a log cabin format, then my smaller splits, followed by a medium. One match and WHOOSH away it goes, be it fireplace or stove. (not that Ive used my stove but a total of 8 lights). I should add though, this is a bit of a pain to find those pieces, get everything prepped etc. If I could just as easily light my wood for .25 cents...Id do it in a heartbeat.
Edit: I see to get it to $1 per puck you have to buy a box of 100. Geesh. My wife bought some stuff awhile back, big box so she could start fires more easily. These little bricks. Onto year 2, they were no where near as efficient. But still worked good. I suspect this year she will be using my method.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I'm with Grumpy.
I'm heating for free, and have all the necessities I need for that fire to start. Dry splitting trash and waste paper. Dry wood slivers burn nicely, quickly, and persistently after being lit by paper (or directly with the torch).

I don't see the need to spend $100 on something resulting in me having to trash what I already have. 20 years ago I bought a watch that cost me 625 (euro). I felt guilty about that. I had the money, but still. I kept telling myself it'll last 25 years, meaning it's 50 ct per month. Didn't help. (I still have and use it.)

I'm paying off my second home, I have no debt, worked my way thru (cheaper than here) college, drive a 10 y/o 10k$ car because it suffices (but bought a 32k$ Rav4 for the wife, cash, a few months ago), will likely be able to retire waaay early (if I wish so).

I got there by not spending money where it's not needed, by not consuming what I already have, (and by not using resources for something that can be done without consuming said resources). That includes the small stuff. Even if it's really small as compared to what's coming in.

To each his own. The economy is helped by it.
Some of us, though, are not "just buy and forget about it" types of people.

A big picture is made up of small pixels.

I thought I was the only person that assigned a monthly cost per item I purchased.
Im a big fan of calculating ROI as well. And then telling it in great detail to my disinterested wife (who has covid now but that doesnt stop me from bleeding her ears with TMI on whatever my current thing is Im working on.)

 

[blades]

Bark and very small splitter leavings go into a big pile along with rotten wood that is too far gone. some of the punky stuff I use to make starters with small 1x1x3 pieces soaked in diesel that was previously used to clean chains and such. they are almost dry to the touch when used. uglies ,shorts ect go into IBC totes . feed those to stove when i am home. the pile gets turned over ever so often. eventually it becomes compost. ashes get spread out once a year also

 

[Riverbanks]

Same here, to small, bye, bye, to the compost pile, it is nice having a stash of nice dirt.

 

[Ashful]

I'm heating for free, and have all the necessities I need for that fire to start. Dry splitting trash and waste paper. Dry wood slivers burn nicely, quickly, and persistently after being lit by paper (or directly with the torch).

I'm paying off my second home, I have no debt, worked my way thru (cheaper than here) college, drive a 10 y/o 10k$ car because it suffices (but bought a 32k$ Rav4 for the wife, cash, a few months ago), will likely be able to retire waaay early (if I wish so).

I got there by not spending money where it's not needed, by not consuming what I already have, (and by not using resources for something that can be done without consuming said resources). That includes the small stuff. Even if it's really small as compared to what's coming in.

To each his own. The economy is helped by it.
Some of us, though, are not "just buy and forget about it" types of people.

A big picture is made up of small pixels.

Good story, but I question the relevance or financial sanity of time spent on saving $0.25 on purchased fire starters, in relation to paying off your mortgage or having the ability to pay cash for your vehicles (which everyone should do).

It's okay, I do plenty un-profitable things, burning wood being chief among them. It's because sometimes I'd rather spend some part of my free time splitting wood than researching investments or chasing customers, not because I actually believe it's the most profitable use of my time.

 

[stoveliker]

Sure, $0.25 won't do that. But doing this consistently with everything allowed me to get ahead when I needed it most, which put me on a path that resulted in me being here now.

In fact, I can say that doing a budget and adding up all the "$0.25"s of every day, it does amount to decent money for someone starting in life. It is precisely then that 1. habits are formed (and here I am...), and 2. money saved will aid the rest of ones life with huge multiplication factors.

I also note that all financial advisors say the same: don't buy that starbucks-a-day, but get it saved up for an emergency fund and go from there. I heard that 25 years after I did that.

Anyway, that's just me, with my habits that are hard to shed now that they are not truly needed anymore.

 

[Diabel]

I am with @Ashful on this one! I started with a dream of ambiant fire in my family room. Quickly realized this is an addiction ( severe one)! Seasoned burners here will agree…….
Will not even try to put a $$ value on this addiction