When you have a wood shop, you never have a shortage of saw dust. So today I am going to talk about the various uses of sawdust on the homestead.
First lets look at some of the off grid folks who use a compost toilet, system or an outhouse. Sawdust is a great way to mask that nasty smell. Many use peat moss or other materials, but why not contact a local sawmill or fellow wood worker and ask for some garbage bins of sawdust.
Next I will tell you, living in Canada and always having ice on the walkways is always a problem. I don't like to use salt as the animals get it on their feet so I use sawdust. In the spring it just decomposes into the ground like a compost pile. I also use sawdust when the vehicles get stuck, it works great for gaining traction.
Some Off Gridder's use sawdust in their ice shakes where they store their Ice blocks. Traditionally, hay would have been used, but I have seen folks use sawdust to cover their Ice blocks for the summer.
Sawdust is a great product to use for kindling, when starting a fire, especially when you start without coals on the bottom. You may also want to get a cupcake papers, and a candle and melt some wax over a cupcake paper filled with sawdust, this will last hours in a fire to help keep it going when you are very low on blocks or hardwood to burn.
I have used sawdust but only the pine shavings and such to mulch some areas of my garden, or at the base of tree's in the fall, it will break down into compost and it will protect the plants and trees from the snow and freezing temps. You just want to protect the roots.
You may also use sawdust to cover up and absorb oil spills. This will make it easier for clean up, as you just have to sweep it all up.
In a pinch, sawdust can be used to fill the kitty litter box, until you can get out to get some litter. The cats don't really mind, it's just sometimes if the saw dust is fine, it will stick to their feet and they will track it through the house. Ideally if you are going to do this, you should have shavings.
Why not recycle and re-purpose your sawdust. I encourage you woodworkers out their to give it a try.
Photo credits:
https://www.allfreecrafts.com/candles/recycled-candles/wax-fire-starters/
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/new_hampshire_homestead
https://www.milkwood.net/2013/07/10/making-a-wood-chip-mushroom-garden/
https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/articles/toilet/index.cfm