When we moved off grid over ten years ago, one of the first things we noticed is that we produce a lot of ash.  We used to just throw it out onto the drive way, but since then we have found many uses for it.  The first use was actually something that our turkeys taught us.  Yes, we even learn from turkeys, which in some ways shows just how ignorant of natural law we actually are.

 

Pest control

If you are not aware, birds love to dust themselves to help control lice and other parasites.  Turns out that they LOVE dusting themselves in ash.  We had a fire pit out front and suddenly one day we found the turkeys dusting themselves in the fire pit.  It was more of a curiosity to start but when I noticed that the turkeys were also eating some of it, that is when I realized that ash has uses and so I started doing some research.  

Mineral supplement

Ash is what is left over from a fire.  All the fuel being burnt off leaves all the minerals behind.  I found out that in some poor countries, ash is used as a mineral supplement for their birds.  There were concerns about the ash being contaminated with dirt and other chemicals.  But I felt that with us burning our own wood, we could mitigate that risk as we know what we are burning.  Obviously we don't burn plastic, pressure treated wood or anything that would introduce harmful toxins into the ash.  As a result, I've started saving our ash for use as a mineral supplement for our birds.  

I sift the ash as there is charcoal and other mater in the ash.  What I'm left with is a beautiful barrel full of gray gold!  The Charcoal can also be kept as well as there are many uses for it as well.

Tool to turn acidic soil more alkaline

When we have too much ash, we also decided to throw the ash into our gardens.  When ash leaches, it produces lye which can turn acidic soil more alkaline.  Plus with all the minerals in the ash, the plants have access to minerals, especially in our mineral deficient soils as a result of modern harmful agricultural practices.  

It is this reason why forests bounce back so quickly after a fire.  Fires release all kinds of nutrients so that other life forms can use them.  Fire is healing and can rejuvenate land very quickly.  So we start spreading our ash around to help augments the compost that we make and combine them together.  Obviously it is important not to make the soil too alkaline, so some care is required in this area.

 Do not use ash if your soil pH is alkaline (more than 7.0). Do not apply wood ash to acid-loving plants such as blueberries, rhododendrons and azaleas; nor to areas where potatoes will be planted; wood ash can promote potato scab. Lawns that need lime and potassium also can benefit from wood ash. - Oregon State University

Lye for soap making

If you are interested in making soap, you can make your own lye from ash as well.  The harder the wood, the better, but lye can be made from most ash.  I've done a batch and it actually worked.  I used a technique similar to what Mother Earth News has, except I used a five gallon pail rather than a large barrel.  With 5 gallons of ash, I was able to make about 1/2 gallon of lye, more than enough for several batches of soap making.  The left over ash then went to the garden as well to ensure we utilize all the minerals.

Covering ice during winter

We don't have access to salt here, but when warm weather hits, snow turns to ice and can make walking around the yard very dangerous.  I've found that by sprinkling some ash on the ground, it covers the ice and our feet don't slide on the ice.  It may track into the house, but at least we have mitigated the risk of injury as emergency help can be hours or even days away, depending on the weather.

Thermal barriers

For you real hard core off-gridders, I've found that I can use ash as a thermal barrier in stove pipes.  Insulated stove pipe is very expensive.  But with some ingenuity, I've made my own in a few different implementations.  For our greenhouse, I built a thermal mass heater with two barrels.  I need an insulated chimney that rises up from the burning chamber into the heat exchanger to ensure I have good draft through the stove.  So I took a 6 and 8 inch pipe, put one inside the other and filled the gap with ash and compressed it.  Worked like a charm!!!

This stove was eventually buried to nearly the top of the heat exchanger, designed to heat up the thermal mass within the inside greenhouse.  The hole in front of the stove acts like a cold well, which was the air that the stove burned.  As a result, I could burn for 5-6 hours during the day and the thermal mass would be hot enough to keep the greenhouse above +10C / +50F all night when it was -35C / -31F outside.  As a result of this stove, I was able to grow wheat grass, barley grass and other sprouts in the greenhouse in the dead of winter OFF GRID!  To learn more about our FreeDome Greenhouse, please visit my post I wrote a few months ago.

Because it worked so well, I tested using ash as a way to penetrate a wall with stove pipe.  I created my own insulated stove pipe using a similar technique using two different sized pipe , wood ash and some tin flashing.  It worked very well in two separate implementations.  The ash resulted in significant reductions in thermal transfer from the stove pipe to the wall.  So well, that I could touch the outside pipe with my bare hand.  Warning:  Do not try this at home unless you are willing to accept 100% responsibility and accountability or your actions.  If you have insurance, this is a sure fired way to become uninsured!  We live without any insurance, so we accept all the risks associated with our life style.  As a result, our ways may seem very unorthodox.  I recommend testing your inventions first before implementing them.  Picking up a laser thermometer to measure heat in real time is a very valuable tool and will help keep your inventions safe.

Also do some research to find out what the flash point of different materials are so that you don't come close to igniting those materials.