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Renting a wood chipper
Wood
chips make me chipper. What can I
say --- some women like roses, but I like mulch, even if it won't be
properly aged until several months from now.
We spent most of the day Saturday over at our neighbors' helping them
chip the biggest pile of saplings I've ever seen. Sunday
afternoon it was our turn. One neighbor drove the chipper over to
our place with his amazingly huge tractor, and then we chipped up a
storm for about four hours before giving in to exhaustion.
Despite
being pleased as punch about our wood chips, I have to admit
that I think the chipper rental won't be an experiment we'll be
repeating. Once I put on my wrist braces, my carpal tunnel
simmered down, but it was still an awfully wearing weekend for about as
many chips as we could get for free if we
hunt down the utility line
guys. Add in a few hours drive to pick up and drop off the
chipper, and we might have been just as well off to buy mulch.
On the other hand, we did clear up some brushy edges that needed work,
and I have my wood chip piles segregated into partially decomposed (for
mulching with this year), fresh pine (for mulching the blueberries next
year),
and fresh box-elder (for planting mushrooms in.) The control
freak
in me is well pleased. And, look, the year's first crocus!!
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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.
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A pickup would be a good choice to convert to run on wood gas.
It's not for the faint of heart, though.