I live next to a national forest, and I have a lots of sick and dying trees on my 7 acre property, mostly sub-alpine fir and birch.
Over the past 3 years I’ve been removing the diseased and dead trees and in the process have given a lot of the wood away to people who use wood to heat their homes. But no matter how much I give away I still seem to have left over wood that I pile up and burn in my fire pit on cool summer and fall evenings.
Over the years my fire pit has accumulated quite a lost of ash and I would like to find some way to use re-purpose it instead of hauling it to the dump.
Can/should I mix it with my horse manure and ultimately use in in my garden? Should I scatter it in the forest (on my property)? Or should I just take it to the dump?
You can use a thin layer of it in your garden, but it will push your soil to the alkaline end of things, so go slow and check your pH (or plant alkaline loving plants.)
You can use it to replace your bathroom scrub for the next 200 years. Mix it with a little water, or sprinkle it on like you would Comet and wipe with a damp sponge or cloth. Wear gloves, ya got lye there.
You can add water and then oil or fat to make soap. But you probably won’t.
You can use it to clean windows and polish your teeth, but I’m not sure how much your gums like it.
Prob’ly works to clean silver and brass, being a very fine abrasive, but of course always check surfaces in an inconspicuous place first, in case it scratches.
You can make real German style pretzels and/or authentic bagels, which require a dip in a lye bath before baking.
If you add some to water and soak dried corn kernals in the solution, you’ll have hominy. Fry them, and you’ll have homemade Corn-Nuts.
If you add some to water and pour it down your drains, it will remove the hair and grease buildup that most commonly leads to clogs.
You can use it to straighten curly hair, but only if you’re an idiot. There are much safer hair straighteners available today.
You can sprinkle it over the bodies in a shallow grave to promote decomposition and reduce odor.
(Can you tell I spent a lot of time discussing WTF to do with wood ashes while sitting around campfires this summer?)
This one is especially good. It’ll be harder to prove premeditation for those murders if you used ash that you happened to have on hand instead of stocking up on 100 lb bags of lime in advance.
