Preparing for the Tub Grinder
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, we're all very busy preparing for the tub grinder.
During the year, my outdoor grounds crew accumulates a lot of organic debris - logs, stumps, bark, and brush. This year, we also took down many ash trees affected by the Emerald ash borer disease. It's all gathered and either repurposed as milled lumber, wood chips, or left to decay and made into garden dressings, such as mulch and compost. To help with the process, I like to call in a tub grinder once a year or once every two years depending on how much material we need to reduce and recycle. The tub grinder is scheduled to arrive early next week, so it's a race to get everything piled up and ready.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here is a view of my compost area – a vital part of my working farm. It’s actually very organized. Piles are divided into types of debris – wood, leaf mold, clippings, and organic matter made up of manure and biodegradable materials. Most of these piles are combined and put through the tub grinder.
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- The compost area is located in a field behind my “Christmas tree garden,” where I planted 640 Christmas trees 13-years ago – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce. They have all grown so much over the years.
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- Nearby, behind my storage building is an area used to store our supply of wood, pallets, pots, and other outdoor materials. Domi is cleaning the area and gathering old stakes to the dump truck. Tub grinders are expensive to rent, so it is important to maximize the time it is here.
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- Whenever trees are taken down, we store them in neat piles, so they are easily accessible for reuse. These old, wet stumps will now be moved to the pile for the tub grinder.
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- Here is one showing the damage done by the Emerald Ash Borer, also known by the acronym EAB – a green beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds under the bark of ash trees eventually girdling and killing them. The ash borer is responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of ash trees in 30 US states since it was first identified in this country in 2002.
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- The crew fills the dump truck with stumps and takes them to the tub grinder pile.
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- Here’s another truck load of unusable wooden stakes on its way.
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- According to the Environmental Protection Agency good firewood should have a moisture content of below 20-percent in order to burn efficiently on a fire. This wood is too wet, so it will also go to the tub grinding pile.
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- These logs will NOT go into the tub grinder, but instead be saved for use as fence posts.
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- Here’s a smaller pile also saved for supporting the fences around the farm.
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- These straight, long, large logs will be put through a portable sawmill and made into usable lumber boards. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to various sizes. If I cannot save a tree, it is comforting to know I can reuse the wood left behind.
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- A couple of years ago, I had all different species of wood milled into dimensional lumber. These milled boards are stacked neatly for building projects with small wooden spacers in between each board to help prevent any mildew from developing.
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- It’s always nice to get everything organized and in its proper place. Plywood boards are saved in another area for future projects.
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- We also save wooden pallets. These are good for keeping things off the ground when storing. They are also good for transporting items and carrying them with our fork lift.
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- Another item NOT for the tub grinder – these bricks. These are from my former East Hampton property. When we brought them back to the farm, we transported them to this storage area in my Multi-Purpose Reusable Heavy Duty Tote Bags – they really do hold more than 900-pounds each.
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- Phurba takes another load of tree stumps to the pile.
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- According to my outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring, this is the biggest pile we’ve ever had here at the farm. I think he’s right. And it will grow even bigger before the tub grinder arrives.
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- In another area, we pile up unused rocks from around the farm.
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- The pile of composting chicken and horse manure, which is filled with nutrients, is smoking – look closely. Healthy organisms in the compost will be active and produce steam even on cold, damp days.
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- This pile is leaf mold, which is compost produced by the decomposition of shaded deciduous shrub and tree leaves, primarily by fungal breakdown in a slower cooler manner.
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- And, at one end of the composting area, Phurba pulls a Gore-Tex tarp off one of the compost piles now ready to use in the gardens. These tarps keep the rain away, and allow excess moisture to evaporate and breathe.
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- These tarps are laid out to dry before they are folded and stored.
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- And here is what’s underneath the tarps – compost filled with nutrients. My gardens are so successful, in part, because of the excellent soil, amended with compost made right here. I am so pleased we can use our organic debris in so many different ways. I will share lots of great photos of the tub grinder at work in an upcoming blog – be sure to stay tuned.
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