This is a post that was originally posted on Joybilee Farm's blog. A reader of our page tried to access the link to this article but the original post was no longer available. I am posting this here for the convenience of my readers, but again, it is not my writing.
Don’t waste the ashes – 10 uses for the ashes from your woodstove
3 Nov posted by
Joybilee Farm
On Tuesday, I told you that bad stuff happens to homesteaders, too.
But homesteaders have more resilience than
city folk when dealing with crises and catastrophes. Sometimes your
dreams become a pile of ashes. Your hopes are burnt up in circumstances
— winter storms, wolves at the door, stock market crashes, relationship
failures, sickness, loss. And it seems like all you have left are the
ashes.
That sucks.
Lionbrand published the story of
Gregory Patrick,
a jobless, homeless man who is supporting himself by knitting teddy
bears and writing books. Gregory is honest about his struggles to
survive. He writes a blog. He volunteers at his neighbourhood church
thrift store. And he knits wool teddy-bears for sale. From the left
over yarns he is knitting himself a blanket — meeting his own needs,
with his own hands. Gregory has taken the ashes of his job-loss and
homelessness and built something that’s worth telling people about.
After Lionbrand published his story on their blog, Gregory sold out of
bears in his
etsy store.
But Lionbrand provided him with enough yarn to knit 60 bears, so the
store will be well stocked again soon. Gregory is not a homesteader,
living off the land, but he is a man who is trying to meet his own needs
through his own hands. So I mention his courageous story to inspire
you.
I, too, have ashes in my own life, little girl dreams and hopes that
never bore fruit. My childhood was Halloween thriller material.
Sometimes you want to forget about the failed starts, the unrealized
hopes, the love that will never be returned, the abuse, the humiliation,
the pain — put it all behind you, hide the brokenness, and forge ahead
like it never happened. Someone told me that women who have been
sexually abused as children can’t garden, can’t get their hands dirty,
can’t feed themselves by growing their own food. It ain’t true!
Women (and Men) who have survived abuse, neglect and hardship need
empowerment. They need inner healing, too, but they need to be
empowered to meet their own needs — to knit a teddy bear and learn to
market it on etsy, for instance. Homesteading, whether rural or urban,
is a way to empower you. Its not the only way. Take the ashes and
build something awesome — a lifestyle, a business, a great work of art —
and in doing that you will be empowered.
Ashes aren’t garbage. They have important uses in the Eco-system of a homestead. Ashes are rich in potassium and carbon.
Only burn untreated, seasoned wood in your wood stove
and you will be able to benefit from the ashes year round. Treated wood
contains dangerous chemicals like arsenic and petroleum that will
release poisonous gases into your home and those poisons also taint the
ashes. Don’t burn treated wood indoors.
Here’s 10 ways to benefit from the ashes of your wood stove.
1. Use ashes, instead of salt, to melt ice on pathways and steps.
Ashes melt ice. They also add traction to slippery areas. While
salt will damage cement and harm shrubs along pathways, ashes increase
beneficial potassium in the soil and work as a soil amendment to
increase the flowering of shrubs and trees.
2. Add ashes to the soil before planting root vegetables like beets, carrots, parsnips and onions.
Ashes contain potassium which plants need to form strong roots, as
well as flowers and fruit. Soil that is high in nitrogen, but low in
potassium will produce lots of healthy, green leaves but no fruit below
the soil surface. Amend soil with wood ashes to ensure a strong crop of
root vegetables. Beets especially benefit from amending the soil with
wood ashes.
3. Use ashes to raise the pH of your indigo vat.
While many recipes suggest adding lye (sodium hydroxide) to raise the
pH of a natural indigo vat, lye is damaging to protein fibres, such as
merino wool and silk. In small amounts lye leaves fibres harsh and
brittle. In larger amounts it completely dissolves the fibers. By
using natural wood ashes instead, delicate protein fibers are preserved.
4. Use ashes to keep the pH of your natural fermentation indigo vat stable.
Fermentation vats tend to drop in pH, becoming more acidic as the
fermentation works. This natural drop in pH, inactivates the indigo
vat. In order to keep a natural fermentation vat active, you need to
increase the pH of the vat. If the pH of the vat get too high, the
fermentation stops working. Lye is often recommended as a pH shifter,
however, even a few grams too much lye can swing the pH dangerously
high. Wood ashes are a gentler way to raise the pH of the vat and keep
it working. Wood ashes are also the traditional way.
5. Use wood ashes to sweeten the outhouse and keep odours away.
Wood ashes are the perfect compliment to your outdoor privy. A
covered bucket of wood ashes beside the John, will encourage regular
use. Regular use of ashes sweetens the muck, encouraging proper healthy
decomposition. Wood ashes keep insects out of the pile and keep flies
from reproducing. The carbon in the wood ash absorbs odours, too.
6. Keep a box of fine wood ashes in the chicken coop for dust baths.
Chicken love to dust bath. It preens their feathers, keeps mites and
lice away and keeps your chickens healthy and parasite free. Use a box
about 12 x 14 about 4 inches deep. Fill it 2 inches full of fine ashes
and dry soil in a 50/50 blend. Leave it in a sheltered dry spot, away
from chicken droppings (don’t put it under the roost, for instance).
Your chickens will use it all winter, when the snow prevents normal dust
bathing outside.
7. Sprinkle ashes in the barn, over the bedding to repel flies and reduce noxious ammonia odours.
Urine is acidic. The manure is more alkaline, especially if the
animals are getting supplemental salt and calcium. Both are high in
nitrogen. To encourage the break down of nitrogen and capture it in the
bedding, rather than allowing it to escape as nitrous oxide gas, you
throw on a carbon rich bedding. We use straw. You could use dry
leaves, or sawdust or any other carbonaceous material. However, when
animals are bedded down in an enclosed space for the winter, the volume
of their urine can out weigh the volume of their manure creating an
acidic environment and an increase in sickly odours in your barn or
loafing yard. When this happens a few shovels full of wood ashes clears
up the problem. Don’t have enough ashes for your situation — calcium
in the form of dolomite lime will also take care of barn odours.
8. Use ashes along with straw or wood chips to keep soggy, spring pastures from causing hoof rot in your animals.
During periods of heavy spring rain, when the ground is still frozen,
the barn yarn can become a slippery slough of manure, sour odours, and
hoof rot. Sprinkle ashes on the ground to reduce slipperiness, reduce
odours and keep rot causing bacteria under control. Wood chips or straw
can also aid your animals footing in slippery spring weather and keep
their hooves healthy.
9. Use ashes as a slug deterrent.
Slugs thrive in wet, acid environments. They breath through their
exoskeletons. Ashes gum up the works and irritate slugs. They don’t
want to cross an ash barrier. Protect your cabbage, broccoli and
cauliflower transplants with a 6 inch ring of ashes. The extra
potassium that the ashes add to the soil will encourage head formation
and flower formation, too. Renew the ashes after heavy rains.
10. Finally, express your anguish at the set-back by
sprinkling ashes on your head (tongue-firmly-in-cheek) and create an Old
Testament Prophet costume.
To complete your Old Testament Prophet costume, weave some yardage
of sack-cloth and design just the right garment for the grieving-look.
Sprinkle some ashes over your head and on your clothing to grey your
complexion. And you’re set. But once you’ve finished sprinkling your
head with ashes and lamenting your loss,
once you are ready to move on with your life –
clean yourself up and take hold of the rest of the ashes. Make
something beautiful out of them — a lifestyle, a business or a great
work of art — and in doing so you will be empowered.
Knowing how to properly butcher the game that you catch is important for several reasons, the least of which is so that you can make the most out of the resource that you've just harvested.
