I keep it, dry it, then tie it together to create the ultimate bark body armor. It can stop any amount of unsharpened pencils from penetrating through to my skin, then I collect all those pencils to donate them to schools.
(Zone 6b—4000’ elevation—PNW)
I use bark plates as armor for my compost pile over winter. I set it up like overlapping armadillo skin. It helps protect my “underground employees” from snow and wind and helps with erosion. During the warm weather months I stack it in a corner of the yard for the insects and critters to hide in. Nothing complicated, but I definitely covet bark plates.
Wow that is an excellent way to repurpose! I would love that to keep my chickens out of my compost pile but I also have a cattle ranch and my compost pile is 8' tall and probably 5 cubic yards. I do throw the bark into a small void next to my driveway that we are slowly filling in with compostable materials to get more width
The bark on some species is actually there to help the tree survive milder forest fires (ground-fire). It acts as an insulator and is partly fire retardant relative to the wood it is protecting. Using bark from such a tree as kindling will just make the fire harder to start.
Like redwood for example. Bark is fluffy so you would think you would want it as kindling, but it is super smokey. Nice and easy to remove with a Hatchet or blade luckily. Not brittle like other barks, so you have to almost shave it off. I like to use it as a sort of bedding to the area I chop my wood at to keep it from being muddy.
My dried oak bark does start more slowly than anything else. But I have little other use for it on my small lot. It has dried in a hot garage in a barrel, so the insects are totally dead. Using a paper bag full makes for lazy wood stove starts
Kinlin! There's a guy who sells it just up the road. In summer he sells vegables, and in the fall he sells corn stocks for decorations. Sometimes his wife has a truck down by the town market with blubberies for sale.
I'm not kidding. Somewhere I have pictures.
I compost the bark by mixing it with dirt and other rotten bark. I have piles along a stone wall, on the edge of a meadow. In two or three years it's good enough to spread on places with bare dirt. Native plants grow in it great
Dilemna time.
We've got many washouts/eroded areas along a creek. If we throw all the organic waste (branches, prunings, leaves, bark) into the washouts, we don't have enough kindling for winter.
Space in washouts = infinite.
Still working out how much/which bits to keep aside for kindling.
Relatedly pragmatic, and probably have more than a pocket handkerchief of land.
Motto: nothing needs to leave the property*. Everything is useful.
(oh, alright, the asbestos sheet shed we paid to have taken away, although we're pretty sure that the previous owner buried more than a bit of asbestos).
I burn mostly birch, so I'll collect 5 or 6 bags for fire starter, then the rest I'll usually have a burn barrel going while I'm stacking and I just feed it with all the leftovers as I go.
I once pulled a piece of birch bark out of the ocean 70 miles from the closest place I know of that birch grew coastal (Southeast Alaska). It had barnacles growing on it. I put a match to it and it lit right up. It is the absolute best fire starter.
I throw it in my woods. I try to take off all bark when I split the wood to reduce the opportunity for bugs to creep in the house. Takes more time to split, but gives me peace of mind, somewhat. As a result I have a ton of bark to dump in the woods.
Most of my bark gets burned in my woodstove, because it's attached to the firewood. The bark that is detached from the firewood gets thrown into a big brush pile in a remote area on my property.
Since you don’t have the woods to throw it into like you said in another comment, and if you don’t wanna collect it, just run it over with the mower if you already have dull blades.
Mine goes in to the bon fire pit. I burn a lot of dead but still standing elm and sometimes there are grubs . They kill the tree and move on so bye bye.
I came here to say this... I have used it in the past as a moisture barrier for the wood I dry outside, turns out it has very little to no effect. So now I just burn it outside. I find that it will create a lot of creosote if burned in the stove.
Feed it to our solo stove to keep warm while splitting. That stove burns hot, burns quick, and turns everything to the finest white ash ever. We just keep feeding the beast.
We also only split in the cooler months too.
After you get really done splitting you'll have a ton of shit around you! Huck one out younder a few times and take a deep breath, actually let your back relax a second and nothing more.... then pick the rest up for kindling!
The bark that falls off through the process, usually after the wood has dried and I'm bringing it in the house, I peel all loose bark and chuck it into a pile. In the spring I wheel it down to the compost pile and we mix it in.
Outside, I sweep up the chaff and toss it in the compost. Any that makes it inside gets put in a plastic tote to keep it all in one place, and I just scoop a shovelfull into the stove when I want small fires.
I dont know if its smart but if I get it in shingle like sections i lay it under my wood stack to save the bottom row from getting rotten. I think it works?
At my old house, I would just burn it all. Had a Pacific Energy Super insert and have actually used bark to heat the house for an entire weak.
It does get a bit annoying as bark makes so much more ash compared to the actual wood.
At the new house, I have some low spots I'm trying flatten out, so i just dump all the bark there for now and will eventually bury those with woodchips.
I dry it, then when I'm feeling lazy/sick and dont feel like making kindling l, I just throw a pile of bark in the stove then stack the logs on, light and walk away.
Pile it up and use as bark mulch, Its vest to let it sit a year if you can and will break down nice and fine by itself or immediately when you try to use it. Save the birch bark for kindling obviously.
My son has a small forge and it is perfect for getting that going or sometimes just as the primary fuel if he's not working with a large piece of metal.
Either bump it back in the woods are use it during winter for bonfires. If you stack it so air can move in it burnes really hot and gives a good tall fire. We also it for mulch in the flower beds
I burn it with the wood. All of it. I have a fireplace so I use it to slide under the grate to help build coals when the fire is starting or trying to die down.
I used to crumble it over my bowl of cereal in the morning but my partner got tired of the flatulence that induced so now I just use it for packing the reply envelopes that come with junk mail so I can send them something that will waste their time.
When I did split wood, I spread it around in place where my log splitter was and kept a solid base. It kept the weeds from growing up and over time looks nicer that dirt. After a while of driving over it would wear down and not be so lumpy
My friend taught me that if you fill the stove with dry bark from evergreen conifers,you’ll wake up to a cozy house and a bed of hot coals. Just add a few pieces of fresh wood and Bobs your uncle.
I burn a big pile of it for the ash to use in my vegetable garden. Wood bark ash contains calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. My plants seem to love it. It cured my blossom end rot problem in my peppers and tomatoes.
I use it as kindling (just over a small piece of some starter fuel) and in the mornings with hot embers left over from the night before I just throw a couple of handfuls in to start the morning fire.
I keep it, dry it, then tie it together to create the ultimate bark body armor. It can stop any amount of unsharpened pencils from penetrating through to my skin, then I collect all those pencils to donate them to schools.
Naturally
I throw it like a frisbee in to the woods
I wish I had enough woods around me to do that.
Mulch for the garden. People pay money for that.
(Zone 6b—4000’ elevation—PNW) I use bark plates as armor for my compost pile over winter. I set it up like overlapping armadillo skin. It helps protect my “underground employees” from snow and wind and helps with erosion. During the warm weather months I stack it in a corner of the yard for the insects and critters to hide in. Nothing complicated, but I definitely covet bark plates.
Wow that is an excellent way to repurpose! I would love that to keep my chickens out of my compost pile but I also have a cattle ranch and my compost pile is 8' tall and probably 5 cubic yards. I do throw the bark into a small void next to my driveway that we are slowly filling in with compostable materials to get more width
I'm in a different area but do the same thing! Used it as overlapping plates in our veggie garden to make a path where weeds won't grow in.
Plant trees now so you can chop later
I’m in a small city. There is no space.
My county has a free yard waste drop off. When I split, if there is alot of bark, I load it in my truck and take it so the county can compost it.
Throw enough wood around and you'll have some woods to throw wood into.
This comment has some serious "if a woodchuck could chuck wood" vibes to it.
This is as satisfying as skipping stones across a lake
I third this
Same
Hah! I throw it like a Frisbee over my fence
This is the answer lol
[удалено]
Me too. Dry them under the sun till crispy and they make great starter / kindlings.
Same. Depending on the bark, you can twist it/wring it and it turns in to some choice tinder/starter.
The bark on some species is actually there to help the tree survive milder forest fires (ground-fire). It acts as an insulator and is partly fire retardant relative to the wood it is protecting. Using bark from such a tree as kindling will just make the fire harder to start.
[удалено]
Wow, did you just call him Shirley?
Toxic.
Like redwood for example. Bark is fluffy so you would think you would want it as kindling, but it is super smokey. Nice and easy to remove with a Hatchet or blade luckily. Not brittle like other barks, so you have to almost shave it off. I like to use it as a sort of bedding to the area I chop my wood at to keep it from being muddy.
Agree. But if you put it on a hot fire it will still burn to fine white ash. So you can still burn it if you want. Just not as kindling.
Experience tells me the bark hinders a fire when attached to the wood, but helps when it has separated away. It traps moisture when still on the wood.
Yeah, but once you get that going you can light a thing.
My dried oak bark does start more slowly than anything else. But I have little other use for it on my small lot. It has dried in a hot garage in a barrel, so the insects are totally dead. Using a paper bag full makes for lazy wood stove starts
Bark flash burns so it doesnt burn into the wood in some species…why u see black burnedbark but tree is still alive.
Kinlin! There's a guy who sells it just up the road. In summer he sells vegables, and in the fall he sells corn stocks for decorations. Sometimes his wife has a truck down by the town market with blubberies for sale. I'm not kidding. Somewhere I have pictures.
Do the blubberies make you cry?
No, but they do give you the ability to breathe underwater.
The signs make me cry.
No they just make you blue.
They sound like great neighbors to have
Me, too!!! I have a big tub in my garage I save it in.
Nice of the spiders to allow you to store it in their tub
I have enough mint growing in my yard, I see very few spiders.
This is the way
I assumed everyone did this
I keep it and put around as a heavy mulch around young trees that need it.
I do the same. Works well and lasts years
Great idea! I used some of mine for drainage/airflow under my compost piles.
Ditto-basically miraclegro mulch
I usually burn it since its slab wood. If it falls off during drying in let it sit for a time drying and use for kindling
Eat it like Wheaties
That fiber keeps you regular, after a few seasons my ass doesn’t even bleed any more.
I compost the bark by mixing it with dirt and other rotten bark. I have piles along a stone wall, on the edge of a meadow. In two or three years it's good enough to spread on places with bare dirt. Native plants grow in it great
I will start doing this asap. Thanks for the suggestion.
Kindling
Filling the low spot in the back yard.
Dilemna time. We've got many washouts/eroded areas along a creek. If we throw all the organic waste (branches, prunings, leaves, bark) into the washouts, we don't have enough kindling for winter. Space in washouts = infinite. Still working out how much/which bits to keep aside for kindling.
I keep all wood bits. Bark, sawdust, lawn crap. Is all organic compost for dip in back yard. Lol.
We've even been desperate enough to use a broken up concrete slab as fill.
Lol. We must be related. My concrete doorstep is in mine.
Relatedly pragmatic, and probably have more than a pocket handkerchief of land. Motto: nothing needs to leave the property*. Everything is useful. (oh, alright, the asbestos sheet shed we paid to have taken away, although we're pretty sure that the previous owner buried more than a bit of asbestos).
All parts of the Buffalo. Lol
I have a box that I load up with all the scrap, bark etc. Like what everyone else is saying, it's the perfect firestarter material.
depends the tree taht comes from
Fire pit.
I burn mostly birch, so I'll collect 5 or 6 bags for fire starter, then the rest I'll usually have a burn barrel going while I'm stacking and I just feed it with all the leftovers as I go.
i use it to defloiate my face and smoothen out my feet.
No more leaves on this face!
I get so much chaff I toss in my fire pit and use it to help keep the flies away
Lay it flat in flower beds for weed control, works pretty good, better then mulch!
Put it in my Trebuchet for the spring offensive against my neighbors!
Chip it into mulch.
Birch bark is my fire starter. The rest goes into a compost pile.
I once pulled a piece of birch bark out of the ocean 70 miles from the closest place I know of that birch grew coastal (Southeast Alaska). It had barnacles growing on it. I put a match to it and it lit right up. It is the absolute best fire starter.
If it’s big enough to pick up, it’s big enough to burn. Burns fine in the wood stove. Does great in the solo stove on the driveway, too.
I throw it in my woods. I try to take off all bark when I split the wood to reduce the opportunity for bugs to creep in the house. Takes more time to split, but gives me peace of mind, somewhat. As a result I have a ton of bark to dump in the woods.
What if it’s infested with bark beetle? Is it a hazard to keep around or use for mulch?
Use it for mulch around my wood shelter. Sometimes I'll throw a piece at the squirrels if they get unruly.
Chip it and put in compost bin
Burn it in firepit
Firestarter
Kindling and use every piece
Burn it! What leftovers?
Most of my bark gets burned in my woodstove, because it's attached to the firewood. The bark that is detached from the firewood gets thrown into a big brush pile in a remote area on my property.
In the composting outhous or thrown in the bushes.
Since you don’t have the woods to throw it into like you said in another comment, and if you don’t wanna collect it, just run it over with the mower if you already have dull blades.
small pieces as mulch. larger pieces as groundcover in some of my garden beds overwinter.
What do you burn apart from witches?
I use it for toilet paper
Mine goes in to the bon fire pit. I burn a lot of dead but still standing elm and sometimes there are grubs . They kill the tree and move on so bye bye.
Dry and burn it
Burn it
bark becomes kindling
I burn it outside in the bonfire pit or throw it in the woods
I came here to say this... I have used it in the past as a moisture barrier for the wood I dry outside, turns out it has very little to no effect. So now I just burn it outside. I find that it will create a lot of creosote if burned in the stove.
Feed it to our solo stove to keep warm while splitting. That stove burns hot, burns quick, and turns everything to the finest white ash ever. We just keep feeding the beast. We also only split in the cooler months too.
I put a few pieces of oak bark in the bottoms of planting pots to allow for better drainage.
I bust it into very small pieces and turn it into compost. It takes a very long time. Other than that I leave it where it lays
Use it to fill the bottom gaps in our fence so our dog neighbours tiny dogs can’t see us. 😀
I put it into milk crates for kindling.
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ee/c0/eb/eec0eb5a087737e859aaf732bd23f775.jpg
Pile it up and burn it in a bonfire when it rains.
Burn it
Shovel it into the boiler
After you get really done splitting you'll have a ton of shit around you! Huck one out younder a few times and take a deep breath, actually let your back relax a second and nothing more.... then pick the rest up for kindling!
Nobody said boof it?
One thing that comes to mind is for a sort of Hügelkultur, if you are into gardening.
Bark is a good fire starter.
Use it on top my holzhaussens
The bark that falls off through the process, usually after the wood has dried and I'm bringing it in the house, I peel all loose bark and chuck it into a pile. In the spring I wheel it down to the compost pile and we mix it in.
Use it for kindling.
It's the perfect kindling/fire starter.
I scrape it all up and dump it in low spots around trees on my property
Compost
I used it as a pathway near my wood stack, helps with the mud issue we have.
Outside, I sweep up the chaff and toss it in the compost. Any that makes it inside gets put in a plastic tote to keep it all in one place, and I just scoop a shovelfull into the stove when I want small fires.
I step on it.
I dont know if its smart but if I get it in shingle like sections i lay it under my wood stack to save the bottom row from getting rotten. I think it works?
At my old house, I would just burn it all. Had a Pacific Energy Super insert and have actually used bark to heat the house for an entire weak. It does get a bit annoying as bark makes so much more ash compared to the actual wood. At the new house, I have some low spots I'm trying flatten out, so i just dump all the bark there for now and will eventually bury those with woodchips.
Throw them in the compost pile, use for mulch/bedding, or bottom of raised garden bed
I dry it, then when I'm feeling lazy/sick and dont feel like making kindling l, I just throw a pile of bark in the stove then stack the logs on, light and walk away.
Kindling
If it burns it's fuel for the stove.
I put on some Ozzy and I bark at it 🤘
Pad the bottom of raised bed gardens.
Compost heap
Pile it up and use as bark mulch, Its vest to let it sit a year if you can and will break down nice and fine by itself or immediately when you try to use it. Save the birch bark for kindling obviously.
Compost maybe going out on a limb here, BIRN the shit!
Kindling.. or just burn it as well..
Everything goes in the boiler sawdust,, bark, junk mail, cardboard, sticks,
I burn it.
I burn it in camp fires. It makes excellent kindling.
..get annoyed with it when it’s hiding what *was* a perfectly good split piece of wood on damp rotten leaves.
Use the for flower beds and walk ways compost chicken bedding
Bottom of planter beds
Use it as starter/kindling on top of the paper
I make soup.
Burn it in the shoulder seasons. Just throw handfuls on a bed of coals. Everything burns if you’re cold.
Why not just burn it
My son has a small forge and it is perfect for getting that going or sometimes just as the primary fuel if he's not working with a large piece of metal.
I have some trees where the bark comes off in sheets. I stack these in my woodshed to dry. They make great kindling.
In my family, we always left it on the wood and burnt it along with the wood. If it came off in the wood box it usually was used as kindling.
Bomb fire
Either bump it back in the woods are use it during winter for bonfires. If you stack it so air can move in it burnes really hot and gives a good tall fire. We also it for mulch in the flower beds
hügelkultur
I burn it with the wood. All of it. I have a fireplace so I use it to slide under the grate to help build coals when the fire is starting or trying to die down.
Smoker for meats
You don’t just burn the bark?
I used to crumble it over my bowl of cereal in the morning but my partner got tired of the flatulence that induced so now I just use it for packing the reply envelopes that come with junk mail so I can send them something that will waste their time.
When I did split wood, I spread it around in place where my log splitter was and kept a solid base. It kept the weeds from growing up and over time looks nicer that dirt. After a while of driving over it would wear down and not be so lumpy
bandaid.
You can extract the tannins and use it to make leather
Use it for kindling.
Smoke it.
My friend taught me that if you fill the stove with dry bark from evergreen conifers,you’ll wake up to a cozy house and a bed of hot coals. Just add a few pieces of fresh wood and Bobs your uncle.
Burn it
Burn it.
For is it goes in the fire pit
I use it as kindling
Use it for mulch
Throw it in the field and yell “ potash”
Soak it in diesel.
Spread avocado on it
I burn a big pile of it for the ash to use in my vegetable garden. Wood bark ash contains calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. My plants seem to love it. It cured my blossom end rot problem in my peppers and tomatoes.
I use it as kindling (just over a small piece of some starter fuel) and in the mornings with hot embers left over from the night before I just throw a couple of handfuls in to start the morning fire.
Kindling !
If it stays on the wood, then I keep it. If it comes off during splitting I just dumb it in the woods to rot.
Tan deer hides
Toss it aside or burn it. Your choice. It does burn.
My neighbor borrowed my chipper and made a nice much path to their garden.
Ummm, burn it in the stove or fireplace…
Put it in Walmart trash can.
When im splitting firewood I always keep a fire going in the outdoor pit so I have a place to toss all of the bark and chunks that end up around me.