Wood supply

I know of a couple of local people who cut and row-up this much-as-they-can too.
They cannot stand to see forest thinning’s just lay and rot.
Or be piled and burnt up to ground clear as MaxG has said, “Just to heat the crows”

And we all know of a certain Texas fellow here who converts all wood waste cast off he can into barrel stored charcoals.
S.U.

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Yep, I know this guy quite well. All charcoal conversion now halted because of a total outdoor burn ban. My logsheet shows 345 barrels of raw wood have been converted into charcoal, but storage of the engine grade already ground and sifted charcoal is a bit of a problem. I have it in steel barrels with lids, large plastic
containers with lids, plus bags and bags stored in various buildings. All I can do during the ban is grind more and more, and use the fines in the rapidly dwindling compost piles. I have added some more solar panels, though.


I now have 18 panels on this circuit, and plan to add three more panels 90 degree to these. (Pointing East to collect morning sun and provide a broader PV curve.) These panels are mounted on “hitching post rails” on the ground, and add to my existing arrays.
With all the excess electricity, we have purchased an induction tabletop unit, and added an InstaPot pressure cooker, so my outdoor kitchen using the charcoal making stove is seeing less use, but is still used for big cooking jobs, usually very early in the morning.
I also need to punch some holes in a new barrel because the current barrel has burned through at the bottom and sides where the air holes were punched… Using the liners extends the life of the burn barrel, and toward the end of life, I shovel dirt/clay over the burnt-out holes, but eventually, they are no longer usable. Plus that, one of my charcoal making cookstoves needs to rebuilt. With this heat, I can only be outside for a few hours in the early morning/late evening.
People are still bringing me dead wood and broken branches, though.

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Wow, thats is wonderful that other people bring the wood to you. Free wood and labor in getting wood to your place. That’s a Win Win in my book.
Bob

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How do you like the induction cooktop? I have heard they have really nice temperature control comparable to gas cooktops.

That isn’t surprising, most places around here have to pay a disposal fee. You should probably charge a nominal fee to help pay for processing equipment upgrades. :slight_smile:

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Sean,
We really like the single burner induction cooktop because it heats up quickly. It only works with pots and skillets that are magnetic, and my wife had given me those types years ago to use with my outdoor charcoal making TLUD stoves. She found a nice clean steel Wok at Wal-Mart and with that, she is a convert. Her Teflon coated electric skillet is probably going to end up in the pantry. She likes the temperature control. The range is 100 watts to 1800 watts, with either watts (a level) or °F reading.
One of the people giving me truckloads of wood has acres and acres of “stuff”. He could probably build a hundred Wood Gasifiers, if he wanted to, but as a typical horder (I guess I am one, too), he doesn’t want to part with his goodies.
I have been accepting brush and trimmings which I lay out in a windrow in the pasture and hit them several times with a 5’ shredded mounted on my tractor. Then, I can pick up all the little pieces and use them to make charcoal. The larger pieces I cut with the chainsaw. Clean stuff is firewood. Junk/dirt/roots go into the charcoal making barrel.
My last four 55 gallon drums were delivered to me (for free) by a hunter who wanted to shoot a wild boar on my property. I put out deer corn for a couple of weeks, and the hunter arrived and shot the big boar with a .300 Blackout rifle. We were up until 5 a.m. dressing it out and making freezer packages for part of the meat that he gave us.
Here is a picture of my ground mounted hitching rail PV array, as of yesterday. Note the color of the grass (if you see any).


Yes Bob, they also give me leaves, branches, trimmings, and other items that they could use to make compost. I have been unsuccessful in converting any of my neighbors to the religion of making compost or bio-char or engine grade charcoal. I just accept what they deliver, thank them profusely, and process it into “Gold”.

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They are supposed to be more energy efficient then NG as well. I am really trying to figure out why they haven’t caught on in commercial kitchens.

AH that is the secret or at least a good trick.

I know you live out in the country, so not many if any would pay to support your habit… I just thought about that because two guys locally were advertising a brush removal service. :slight_smile:

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Inspiration and guidance is where you will find it.

I/we have this one healthy, now big, very out of regional black walnut tree. The only of five gifted to my father-in-law that survived our late Spring and early Fall killing frosts.
I should have dug it up and tried transplanting it back in at only 4"/100mm in diameter back in 1995 when we enlarged the one field gate into a circular dual gated driveway. Naw. I thought, just let it grow and become some firearms and furniture wood, later. The bye-bye oddball not-conifer tree.
Now it is 18"/40cm across and 50 feet high.
For 15 years now dropping dent damaging staining nuts potentially onto the wifes cars. (she must park in the yard grass)
Grown up into the roadside public Grid power-lines and gets center-V trimmed back by them.

My wife handed me her latest current copy of her monthly “Hobby Farms” magazine. Her favorite. A glossy-paged Slick, with too many advertisements for me.
Headlined article of CASH CROP: Black Walnuts.
Small scale how to spring-wire roller-ball,no-stoop pick them up. Four different D.I.Y.ways to husk/hull them. Three different D.I.Y.ways to crack them for meats and shells.
Composting instructions do de-toxify the hull-husks, shell bits.
How to sprout, and propagate them. 3 years grown, to 3 foot tall in frost/drought protected pots. Controlled 6.5ph with added phosphorus. Ah! Ha! These have been my mistakes getting yearling sprouts-outs past the second year.
Tap the black-walnut trees like maples for black walnut sap; half-reduced down to a high medical value $'s light syrup.
And then of course the dyes and lumber markets and lumber potential value informational links. In favorable areas up to $100,000 an acre in value.

Ha! And her “she” magazine this month has particularly meaningful articles:
Extend Your Growing Seasons
Portable Sawmills
Build-Your-own-Solar Panels
GO NUTS! Nut Trees For Your Orchard
These are all short, what many would call lightweight articles. But often times that is all needed to get inspired and started.
And like the best of working AG classes I taken: these articles are written/presented by actual DOers actual earning in these areas.
DOer Users. Like the DOW, here.

Be inspired to actually go out and DO things versus just talking about things.
Steve unruh

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Sounds like you have the perfect adapted tree to propagate and become wealthy. I have to say black walnut does make some amazing wood. The best I have here is cherry and red oak and my cherry trees seldom get big enough you could saw them.
You are making me want to put some other projects on hold and start working on an orchard though.
Oh well back to harvesting my garden until the weather is nice enough for more than a day so I can go back to haying.

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I’ve had decent luck here propagating walnut. As you’ll know, like acorns the nuts can’t dry out, they get planted 2 - 3" deep in the fall. My approach to planting in conditions outside of the normal range is to just plant more. Sounds like you have a very promising tree there, but when it reshuffles it’s genetics with each seed, some will tend to throw back to less hardy stock. You should have no shortage of nuts to plant, just let nature sort out the weaker ones. If you can gather nuts from a similar site, better yet, to widen the genetic base eventually (I’ll assume a vigorous tree will start cross pollinating and producing nuts around the 10 year mark.

Since I have excess nuts, I made a seed bed on my land north of here. Predictably the majority of seedlings didnt like it so much, but a few are proving to be strong, likely stronger than the parent tree. I’m looking forward to seeing what those ones will do. Your account of seedlings dying after year 2 might be consistent with winter kill above the snow layer.

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It’s been a while since we heard the expression “Wood is accumulati’n”.
130+ bags bagged (out of bags), drying cribs full, trailer full. What to do? Don’t think putting an add in saying “Gasifier fuel for sale” would do much good. Just seems I don’t do enough driving :smile:



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JO, I feel your pain :grinning:

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Y’all make me laugh.

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What to do?
Maybe seasonally when you could get away with it convert to wood charcoal chunks some of the smaller billets and then friends/family gift them out to those who still wood charcoal outdoor grill. BBQ.
Make your self from the wood-crazy-nut into the charcoal grill-master hero.
Regards
Steve unruh

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Looks like you need to find another motor to convert over to wood fuel. Find a neighbor who will buy the new vehicle and then you will have a customer and you will be on your way to fortune you will be the next ExxonMobil… :wink:

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Had some time to play today.

Been thinking about keeping a IR temp gun with me. That way I can check if it is safe to touch the door knobs that are in the path of the sun!!!

Keep you log ends painted…

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Unable!
I’m beyond saving :smile:
The idea is good though - to save some charcoal for gifting. Only I would rather harvest from my downdraft boiler, for therapy, during slow winter months. I’d hate to turn labour-intensive chunks into charcoal.

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JO, what will you have for an excuse to sit down by the furnace this winter. You have plenty of wood without that time. By the way, did you remember, you have to have wood to heat the house. When you get cold, you can’t just go for a ride to keep warm. TomC

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Well, all my storages are full. Firewood as well. I will just have to sit and accumulate belly fat until spring.

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Sounds like you need to build a wood powered saw mill with all the wood you have maybe you and @KristijanL can get together and work out a deal where you help fuel his new mill…

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Surprise, surprise Dan. JO already built a sing blade saw mill. This guy is a genius and work- a-holloic. TomC

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