(Who giggled?) I burn wood in the barn. And this time of the year when it’s 18 degrees and windy out – I burn it pretty fast. But – I’m also cheap. That’s a dilemma. So I have come up with a solution that seems to really solve both my dry, fast burning, hot wood needs as well as my disdain for spending money on something that goes up in smoke. Used wooden pallets!
Using a less than cared for chainsaw chain that I don’t mourn the inevitable encounter with a nail – I makes lots of sawdust as I hack them in 6 small pieces. From there – they get piled in a rather unceremonious manner under the leanto for future easy access from the barn. That also keeps the snow and rain off of them. It takes a little more work than having a delivery of several facecords and stacking – but it’s only the cost of time. This particular pile here was the result of about an hours total time the day after Christmas.
OK Mr. Sustainable Hunka Burnin’ Love: What do you do with all the sawdust?
It gets tossed (what I can easily get from the gravel) onto the compost pile… it makes for some quick decomposition activity and good soil! I suppose the truly retentive might try and fashion small sawdust logs from it to burn… but – I DO have limits
What a great idea! I need to do this too – it would be far cheaper… but how fast do they burn?
Thanks Dave. The do burn pretty fast – and very hot. Great for starting fires and warming the barn quickly. I will need to get some standard fire wood – as it’s not a pallet stove. Some folks actually have these huge stove setups where they can toss in the entire pallet – I’m thinking that might be overkill (but nice).
Great idea!
Sawdust consumes nitrogen like fire consumes oxygen. Like CRAZY! Make sure you add a lot more hot or green items to your compost to make up for the dry sawdust.
I’ve actually gone down to Tractor Supply Company, brought home free crates, and used them to construct small buildings. With fasteners to join them, they act as pre-constructed wall and ceiling sections. Pretty cool. I built a goat milking parlor with a feed room off the side for less than 50 dollars, complete with stakes to keep it from blowing away. LOL
The irony is – our compost bin is constructed like your milking parlor (much smaller scale)
And I’d be hard pressed to generate enough sawdust by cutting these pallets up to outstrip the nitrogen in the pile… I can’t imagine how big a pile of non-stackable pallet chunks that would give me! UGH!
OK Mr. Sustainable Hunka Burnin' Love: What do you do with all the sawdust?