I got this for Christmas from Craigslist. Cheap!!
Why?
I have goats.
Goats regularly ‘fertilize’ their bedding straw.
Goats strip leaves off of every stick in the vicinity.
Neither straw nor sticks break down very quickly in the compost pile. But because of this baby, I have the coolest compost pile in the WORLD right now.
Chippy-chip-chip!
Ivory
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I am soooo jealous!!! I have tons of downed trees, twigs and pooped on straw, lol… my compost piles are going to take years!
Dare I say that’s the cutest chipper I’ve ever seen? What a great tool!
I am so jealous. I have two goats as well, and I am finding that the sticks are piling up (although my trees look so neat and tidy with the lower limbs trimmed off, dont’ know what I’m going to do when all the trees are trimmed…). I’m sure hubby will *hate* having to get another manly machine…
that’s the chipper i wanted–unfortunately the only chipper available on our craigslist when i was in the market is HUGE, but it was a good price so we got it.
here’s a tip: i found out our local tree companies will often let you have their whole chipped tree load for free! depending on your locality, they have to pay to dump the chips so it is more economical for them to give them away. we got an entire truck load–a pile about the size of a small car–delivered and dumped for me for NOTHING. woohoo! but i still have sticks to chip because we have a lot of storms and tornados leave a lot of debris.
WHEW!!!
At first, I read it as “Goats IN chippers”. Needless to say, my heart jumped a smidgen! lol
I’m envious of your compost pile. Is that weird?
Speaking of goats……………….
How are the little darlings?
Nice find. Don’t forget plants want a 12:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen (in fact, they will wait to absorb nutrients until they have that), wood adds LOTS of carbon that can take 2 years to go away.
I burn all woody plants and sticks, then I use the ash for the chooks dust baths. Compost is easy to make, but great compost takes careful consideration.
Now wood chips on top of beds is fine, but I would be real careful to avoid putting wood into the soil.
Just my $0.02,
Don
We got one of those chippers….used it one weekend then shoved it in the shed, the vibrations it makes when you try to run wood through can really hurt after awhile! Ours jammed up a LOT too, so I hope you have better luck than we did!
Cute chipper, is it electric? And what brand is it?
I want one! I want one!
Sorry this took so long, ya’ll. I’ve been out of town and then I was really lazy after that. HA!
@ Beth–It’s an electric chipper–McCulloch
@Ali–It does need you to talk to it a lot and give it small bites. It jammed on me all the time in the beginning, but we’ve worked out the kinks in our relationship.
@Don–Wow.
@Rowena–local tree companies? like the people that remove them?
@Kimberly–yeah, the goats were asking for it…all that cuteness…it just had to go. And it’s not weird to have compost-envy, it comes with the territory. I don’t even like to think about TL’s compost. It’s to lovely.
@Wanda–I have a goat post in the queue. Long overdue, but it should pop up, maybe, tomorrow? I can’t remember.
@Emily–unless you get a honkin’ one, it won’t easily chip up anything over a inch in diameter, but it’s GLORIOUS. I use it on the bedding and everything. That soil holds water like a sponge. For bigger sticks, I hear busting them open with sledge hammers or something speeds it up.
@Lindsay– I agree about the trimmed trees. Mine look better than ever. I’ll keep hubby in my thoughts as he struggles with the burden of *having* to get another cool machine.