Firewood Storage

Now that the house is approaching it's finale, I'm trying to get better organized. I'm building some shelving, creating some storage spots both inside and out. I realize that I need a proper place to store firewood up by the house. Up until now it's been stashed out on the lanais. But they are disappearing one after the other as they are being enclosed and becoming part of our living space. So I took a look around for a convenient spot to make a simple shelter. Ah, behind the catchment tanks. Out of sight but close by, and easy to get to. That space isn't being used for anything but weeds, and most likely never will be used for anything. 

Next step, what to build? Just how elaborate, permanent, and expensive do I want it? Answer: simple, temporary, dirt cheap. Since we're still in flux about exactly where things should be, a temporary structure is fine for now. 

Before heading out to the hardware store, I took a deep breath, relaxed, and repeated my mantra....Self Reliancy. Low Input. Ok. I told myself-- no 2x4's and plywood for this project. Let me think on this one......

Ok, what I came up with will work. Since the structure will be out of sight from everyone, it doesn't have to be lovely, cute, and painted pretty colors. It just has to be functional. So it could be a pallet shelter with a tarp roof. If I had salvaged metal roofing available, I'd use that. Perhaps in the future I'll be able to scrounge up more of that. The tarp will do for now. 

First off, I pulled the tallest weeds out, adding them to the compost boxes. Then I brought over several sturdy pallets that were in good condition. 

I had previously leveled this area with my surplus small rocks a few years back, so I didn't have to do anything more to prepare the ground. I had two perfect sized logs that had been cut previously while clearing trees. So they got drug over using just muscle power. The final piece - the roof ridge. The 2x6 that had been salvaged when we revamped the catchment tank set up now had a use. Perfect. 

Digging holes for the logs, they slipped right into place. The little rocks were wedged back into place and the front upright log was braced until the rain settles things again. In fact, I think I'll go pound that with a sledgehammer to stabilize that log better and quicker. 

Next, the pallets were nailed to one another. The end pallets on either side were too wobbly and needed support, so I cut two other pallets into half. I then nailed the halves to each end pallet on either side. This shored them up well. 

Since the tarp will be nailed or otherwise fastened to the pallets, I didn't want a fierce wind to lift everything up. Not that we have fierce winds on a regular basis. The last time was 1991 I think. But one never knows. So I hammered a "U' shaped piece of rebar in at each pallet and wired the pallet to it. I think that will be just enough to encourage things to stay put since the tarp is rather sheltered from wind anyway. 

Finally the tarp. It rests over the ridge pole and is nailed onto the side pallets. Simple to put on. Simple to replace when needed. 

To keep the wood up off the damp earth, I laid down a couple of pallets. As I fill the little shelter up, I can add more pallets,

This simple structure took only an afternoon to complete from start to finish. It cost me only the nails, about 15' of wire, and a tarp. Everything else was either salvaged, free or obtained right on the farm. It should work just fine to store my firewood, keeping it handy and dry. 

If hubby doesn't like the color as the pallets weather, then I'll spray paint them some woodsy color to have it blend in better. But one cannot see this from the house, nor can the neighbors. Thus I don't think it makes much difference. 

Alternative Fuel - Kukui Nuts

I had mentioned previously that I planned to experiment burning kukui nuts. They are common around here and nobody uses them. Thus people don't mind if you harvest them. Harvesting is easy because the nuts drop to the ground. Just a case of picking the up. 

About three weeks ago I picked up a shopping bag of them from under a tree at my mom's house. Then I set them on a table under the eaves so that they would dry out. I didn't bother to husk them at all. Simply set them in the table away from any rain. So today I picked them up in order to give them a try. The husks were completely dried. 

I first started the fire my usual way, using twigs and a bit of paper. Then I burned a couple faggots of twigs in order to get a bed of embers before adding nuts. Then I put about a quart of nuts atop the embers. It didn't take long for them to start slowly burning. Once the nuts started to burn, they burned hot and bright. 

About 5 minutes into the burn they started putting off a lot of heat. It was like putting an equivalent amount of charcoal briquettes into the fire. Those nuts burned intensely for about 15 minutes before starting to slow down. That was impressive. And the heat output was impressive too. 

So I conclude that dried kukui nuts do indeed make suitable fuel. Though free for the taking, it does take time to pick them up. And stooping down to reach them. I don't know if they would still burn as well if they were stored for months before burning, but storing for a month or so seems to be  fine. So here's another thing I'll need to experiment with. How long will they retain their oil and be good for a hot fire? 

So where did I get the idea to try burning these nuts? From the ancient Hawaiians. They used these nuts as a torch, skewering them on a stick then setting them alight. The nuts contain oil that readily burns. So I knew that historically they were good for burning for light, but I was surprised to see how much btu's they generate. Hot little buggahs! 

Twig Faggots

Jerry contacted me via email complaining about my idea of using twigs for firewood. He felt that they weren't worth the effort because they were so difficult to use. He had trouble getting them into a burning firebox, they made a mess, and he had to keep repeatedly adding twigs every few minutes. So I guess I need to elaborate on my twig usage. 

I do in fact use twigs all they time. They are easy to get going for a fire and produce heat quickly. But they do need a bit of refinement as to their handling. Here's what I do.....

In the course of ground maintenance I come upon windfallen twigs all the time. The best thing about using them is that they are dead and quite dry, ready for burning. And they are usually brittle enough to mostly break up by hand. So when I'm doing cleaning up or pulling weeds, I'll cast the twigs into a pile as I move along. Then later I'll come back for those small piles, gathering them up in the wheelbarrow to transport them to a central location for processing, usually the lowered tailgate of my pickup truck. It puts the twigs at a comfortable waist high. 

By processing I mean turning them into twig faggots. I had seen a picture decades ago of an Italian farmer who made twig faggots by lining up equal sized twigs then tying them into a bundle with string. I tried that and it was far too tedious and wasteful for me. It took my forever to make a pile of faggots that I burned up in just one evening. Plus they were still awkward to get into a burning stove.  So I abandoned the idea. But since starting this homestead I revisited the idea. I had scads of twigs here that had to be of some use other than being just landfill. So I experimented. 

The method I came up with that works for me is to make rolled up newspaper twig faggots. The beauty of this that even tiny twig pieces get utilized and no need to be exact while breaking up the twigs. I'll use one sheet of folded newspaper to make a faggot. I could use more but one seems to do the job. I'll lay out the sheet as shown......

One full sheet. Then folded just like it was in the newspaper it came from ---

Now I'll break up the twigs and pile them on so that they don't go much beyond the edges of the paper. Why? Because that's the length that fits into my stove. 

I don't try to make the faggot too thick. Thinner is better than thicker. If there are too many twigs it is difficult to roll the faggot and make it stay rolled. And if it's too fat, it's harder to put into the stove. 

I'll roll a faggot then store it in a suitable sized cardboard box. As the faggots fill the box they hold one another together. The cardboard box is also lightweight for carrying, keeps any dirt or twig bits from messing up the place, and is a handy way of storing them. 

Making faggots this way means that any size twig can be used. There is no need to be neat and careful. There is no string tying. Rolling goes fairly quickly. Anything too thick to hand break or crack over the edge of the tailgate or under my foot gets put in a pile for cutting up with the chop saw. So there's no waste either. 

These branch pieces, above, were too strong for me to break under my foot. So they get sawn into 6"-8" lengths. 

Then they stored in old feed bags. I prefer the smaller cat food bags only because when full they are still light enough for me to carry into the house. 

My Homestead Firewood

Ah, thoughts of winter must be cropping up inside the heads of the mainland readers because I'm getting emails asking about winter firewood. 

Where I'm now living, preparing for winter means changing the angle of the solar panels and closing the house windows at night. How simple! And boy, I surely don't miss those winter preparations that I use to do when living on the Eastcoast. It was a normal way of life back then, so I never gave it much thought. But looking back, I surely don't miss it. 

Since people know that I run two woodstoves, I field lots of questions about firewood. 

...Do you stockpile a winter supply? 

No. Since I use firewood year around, I just store wood when there is more than I need at the moment. Stockpiling some wood has its benefits. That way I would have dry wood to get me through a rainy spell. I recall the time when we had 39 straight days of rain! Stockpiling has provided me with wood to get through an injury recovery period. Yes, I've injured myself occasionally which meant that there were a couple of weeks in a row where I couldn't gather and cut up wood. 

...What tree species do you burn? 

Whatever I have. Around here on the farm ohia and eucalyptus are most common. Wild guava and loquat are plentiful. But there is a variety of trees around, both natives and introduced. No oaks, maples, ash. But still nice burnable wood. 

... Do you use a log splitter? 

No. I don't need to have a long burning fire, such as overnight. So I don't burn big logs. It's a lot of work to hand split logs ...... I've done that in the past so I know about it all too well ......and it's not economically feasible to buy a log splitter for the homestead. Besides, logs are heavy and I'm no spring chicken anymore. Therefore I don't deal with logs for firewood. I have plenty of small stuff to use for firewood. Logs are better utilized for building low retaining walls, built up garden beds, and other projects. 

... If you don't burn log wood, what do you burn? 

Due to the tradewinds, I have plenty of fallen branches and twigs. Branches up to 6" diameter are always being snapped off. On top of that I have plenty of small trees that I am gradually clearing away to expand the pastures. I have the room to pile up the branches and let them sit for a year to dry out. Then I'll cut it up for firewood. Anything 1/2" diameter and larger goes for firewood. The smaller stuff goes into my biotrash piles to fill in holes on the property, or gets run through a chipper and made into mulch. Some gets set aside for kindling. Before a fresh branch goes onto the dry-out pile, I'll take a pruning shears and trim of the majority of the fresh leaves and fine twigs. They go into the garden grow boxes. No waste. 

Above - This pile of small logs runs from 1 1/2" diameter up to 4" for much of the pile. One chunk is over 6" and will get used in some garden project rather than being split for firewood. This wood came from some trees I thinned out from the pastures. Besides using this wood for firewood, I tend to pick out the straight pieces for trellises and other projects. 

.... Where do you buy your firewood?

That's a common question I get. I don't buy it, simple as that. There is plenty of downed wood around free for the taking. The cost of wood is my time, a saw, and something to haul it with (truck, ATV, etc). If I ever should run out of wood on my own property, there are plenty of neighbors who would love having me clear out some of their windfall debris. 

...How many cords of wood do you burn in a year? 

Truthfully, I can't say. Since I don't burn cord wood, I can't even compare and venture a guess. The vast majority of my firewood is stuff that other serious wood burners would pass over -- twigs,  chunks, small branches. Plus I don't do long burns daily. Every second or third day the livestock cookstove gets run for 2-3 hours, cooking up a jumbo pot of assorted food stuffs. The house stove normally runs a short fire in the morning, and during the winter a brief fire at night to take the chill off. 

...What tools do you use? 

I do have a small 14" chainsaw, but it doesn't get a lot of use. It's brought out to cut fallen tree limbs into handable size, and for the occasional small tree to be removed. A good quality loppers gets a good workout on green stuff. I have two of those compound ones that are very easy to use. One handles up to 1 1/4" and the other can go up to 2".  For anything bigger (or not green wood) than a lopper can handle, I use a sawsall (if it's standing) or a chop saw (if it's already down and carry-able). I picked up the chop saw, used, from a person who was moving. Funny to think that a chop saw is my number one firewood cutter, but it surely is easier to use than a circular saw or chainsaw. 

    I don't have any of the usual firewood tools that I had back on the mainland. No ax, hatchet, splitting maul, wedges, sledge hammer, chains. No rented woodsplitter. No big, serious chainsaw. 

...What do you use as kindling? 

Since I have plentiful twigs, I don't bother using a hatchet to chop a log into kindling. A fire gets started using newspaper, cardboard, fine twigs, 1/2" branches, then bigger stuff when it gets going. I use homemade wax/sawdust firestarters, but if I'm out of them I'll use a bit of 90% alcohol to jumpstart the fire. 

Above - this pile of wind fallen twigs is my source of kindling. Small twigs for starting, larger twigs and light branches for getting things going before the 2"-4" wood is added. As needed, I will tramp on this pile then pick up the pieces and transport them in a cardboard box up to the woodstoves. Anything that won't break up by a good tramping will get cut with the chop saw. 

...Do I ever use coal?

No. Coal is not naturally occurring in Hawaii. It would have to be imported. Thus I don't burn coal.

But we do have something here that burns hot somewhat like coal ----- macadamia nuts! I sometimes get several bags of old or spoiled macnuts. They burn great, but I have to use them just like I would coal. If you've ever tended a coal fire in a woodstove, you know what I mean. I'd burn macnuts all the time if I could get them for free. They make a great fire for heating and cooking. 

    This year I've been gathering the kukui nuts that fall in my mother's yard. I'm going to give them a try as a firewood source. They contain oil and historically were used to burn as a torch by the old Hawaiians, but I have no experience burning them myself. So we shall see. I have several 5 gallon buckets of them, so I'm ready to give them a trial run. 

....Have you ever considered collecting driftwood for firewood? 

Although I'm surrounded by ocean on this island, I don't see much driftwood on the beaches. And besides, there's not much beach around here. The coastline is mainly jagged rock.  If there were plentiful driftwood, then I would indeed use it. But alas, there isn't enough to make a driftwood collecting trip worth while. 

....Do you avoid burning certain types of wood? 

If you mean tree species, well, no. We don't have much pine around here, but I would burn that too if it were plentiful. And I've burned Christmasberry with no problem, though some people claim that the smoke causes skin rashes. I haven't seen that yet. But I do avoid burning chemically treated woods such as cabinetmaking waste, exterior pressure treated construction wood, plywood, pressboard, painted wood. That sort of thing. 

....How do you dispose of the ash? 

Dispose isn't the word I use. Utilize. That's more like it. Wood ash goes into the garden via direct application and via the compost. Besides the ash, I also put any charcoal into the gardens too. 

Don't Burn the House Down

Lets talk "ashes". Ashes, as in the by product of a wood fire.

As you know, I'm a wood burner. Hubby says that I have a fascination with burning things, but regardless, I've maintained a woodstove for most of my life.  Perhaps its in my blood since Granddad was a fire truck chaser. We have a small cast iron stove in the living area, a Morso Squirrel, that takes the chill off the house and helps keep the mold down. A bonus is that I can cook on it. I also run a small rocket stove for cooking livestock feed (roadkill, slaughter waste). And I also have a homemade TLUD stove for making biochar. 

All these stoves are carefully installed so that there are no burnable surfaces nearby and are set on nonflammable bases.  The rocket and TLUD stoves only run when I am present and on non-windy days. I keep a pile of soil and shovel handy plus a water source just in case a spark or ember should break loose. I have never needed either but it's good insurance to have both handy. 

All stoves are kept maintained, cleaned, and as safe as possible. Most stove owners see the sense in this but the one area that I have seen people make tragic mistakes is with handling the ashes. I know of a house fire, numerous lawn fires, and a garage that burnt.....all due to the ashes. Yes indeed! For real! 

My ash container is a metal garbage pail, with lid. I mention the lid because wind can blow ash and live embers right out of the pail on a windy day. I saw it happen to me once. So I'm careful now to get the lid on. If ash is kept indoor (no wind) then a simple metal bucket should suffice, as long as you don't have a toddler or dog........or clumsy spouse......who can knock the ash can over.

Some stories just to illustrate the danger of "cold ashes" and "dead fires". (Names are changed to protect my friends from being embarrassed yet again for their stupidity.)

1- First thing every chilly morning the ash was shoveled out of the stove and into a plastic bucket that "Jill" had been using for years. The bucket was then set outside the kitchen door while she went back to start a morning fire. One day coming into the kitchen to start breakfast, "Jill" noticed an odd smell. Thinking her neighbor was burning trash, she ignored it. 10 minutes later the smell was stronger, so stepping out the kitchen door to complain to her neighbor about the odor she discovered that the plastic ash bucket was melting and on fire. Thankfully it wasn't real close to the house and was sitting on concrete steps. 

2- Before starting the evening fire, "Jack" decided to run the chimney brush down the stove pipe. He then shoveled the soot, creosote, and ashes into a paper bag, taking it out to the garage. Back to starting the fire, making coffee, and watching a movie. When he smelled smoke he went to investigate only to find his garage on fire. 

3- "John" had forgot to empty is ash bucket that morning, so when he went to scoop the previous night's ashes out of the stove he had more than would fit in the bucket. Assuming the ashes were old and cold, he scooped the extra into a cardboard box. Yes, you can see where this is going. Yes, the ashes were set outside the front door. Yes, the cardboard box smoldered then ignited. The first the "John" knew about this was when his neighbor banged on his window to tell him that his door and porch were on fire. 

Then there are the multitude of grass fires. I know of lots of people who take their ashes outside and proceed the spread them about on their lawn and gardens. The ashes look dead, but tiny embers often lurk there just waiting for some fresh air. Ah-ha, another grass fire! Yes. It happens a lot, more than you think. 

I've rediscovered something that my ancestors were well aware of.....ash is a wonderful insulator. Embers can stay hot for hours, often a day or more under the right conditions. I've seen ash and embers sit in a bucket for a full day and still have some heat to them. Given some fresh air, and the tiny embers begin the heat up and glow. Something to think about. 

Back to my ash bucket. By the way, I have two. One in use, and the second to start using when the first one is full. It takes a week or more to fill a bucket, so it has plenty of time to really become dead before I spread the ashes. I also have an old metal frying pan with lid that I sometimes use. It comes in handy in the house. 

What do I do with the ashes once they're cold? I add them to compost. And I sprinkle them onto the pastures that need it. Ashes raise the soil pH rapidly plus provide some trace minerals and other nutrients. Ash is rich in potassium, a plant requirement. 

For these photos I set the ash containers on a garden rock wall. But that's not a safe place because of the dry litter from grass, trees, etc. Yes, I tend to be over cautious when it comes to burning my house down. Normally the cans set on a concrete pad outside the side door.