The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Saw dust delivery

truck load of saw dust being dumped into truck


A lumber mill in Norton charges 15 dollars for a pick-up load of saw dust.

We had to hire someone with a truck, which should come out to around 60 dollars with fuel and labor and rental fee.

It's a heck of a lot of saw dust for 75 bucks.



Join the Walden Effect!

Download a free copy of Small-Scale No-Till Gardening Basics when you subscribe to our behind-the-scenes newsletter.

Anna Hess's books
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


RSS
Sawdust
Congratulations! That will make you sooooooo happy. I like to put some saw dust in the nesting boxes. They smell so much better. The chickens don't seem to mind it.
Comment by Mona — Thu Sep 27 15:54:27 2012
sawdust
Yes...it was a very happy day, and I agree the smell of sawdust is most pleasant and a bonus for chicken coops.
Comment by mark — Thu Sep 27 20:09:20 2012
Heaps of sawdust
Mona --- We'll be using the extra as deep bedding materials for the chicken coop. It definitely won't go to waste! And it smells really good. :-)
Comment by anna — Thu Sep 27 20:11:05 2012
Pine branches?
Do you have access to/tried pine branches? I heard they are excellent for chicken coop's.
Comment by Marco — Fri Sep 28 06:39:31 2012
Chicken coop bedding
Marco --- We have a couple of pine trees, but they're some distance away and up a steep hill, so I'd have to carry anything I cut from them home by hand. I do rake their needles occasionally to mulch the blueberries, but we usually use bagged autumn leaves my mother finds on the curb (or that I rake out of easier parts of the woods) for our chicken coop bedding. I'm curious to see how the sawdust compares to the leaves.
Comment by anna — Fri Sep 28 07:54:27 2012
sawdust
There is a local ad on craigslist for pu loads of sawdust/chicken manure mix for only $3 a load. What would you use it for? I've been wanting to get some (three bucks? whipee!) but wouldn't know how to use it.
Comment by fostermmas — Fri Sep 28 10:52:36 2012
Excellent biomass
Fostermamas --- I'm jealous!!! I'd probably put it in a pile and let it compost for a year or so, then use it to mulch perennials (like berry bushes, fruit trees, etc.) Or you could let it age another year or so (adding urine if necessary to provide enough nitrogen to get it to really break down) and use it as compost on the garden. Definitely good organic matter!
Comment by anna — Fri Sep 28 11:19:21 2012
comment 8

Sawdust smells nice, but what you smell isn't always good for you.

Some woods (e.g. cypress and pine varieties) contain acids that irritate the airways and can provoke astma.

Comment by Roland_Smith — Fri Sep 28 12:36:15 2012
Good smells
Roland --- What I was smelling was decomposing microorganisms --- that kinda woodsy aroma you get in healthy leaf mould. So, not the bad kind of good smells. :-)
Comment by anna — Fri Sep 28 12:41:32 2012
Add a comment





profile counter myspace



Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.

Required disclosures:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a few pennies every time you buy something using one of my affiliate links. Don't worry, though --- I only recommend products I thoroughly stand behind!

Also, this site has Google ads on it. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to a website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to various sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting this site.