What do you do with all your shavings?

[Jeramie Johnson]

Bedding for the chicken and duck houses, vegetable garden paths, flower and herb garden paths. Have never had extra to waste burning.

[Jim Sevey]

Compost, meat smoker where appropriate, fireplace, packing material for shipped projects.

[Hilel Salomon]

Whatever you do with them do not use uncured shavings as regular mulch for flowers and ornamental plants. No amount of curing will make walnut shavings less toxic to other plants, but even other wood shavings are unsuitable until such time as they are cured and nitrogen is added. They are ok around mature trees and some of the other uses suggested above. They can, however, also attract termites and other insects. I throw them around areas far from my house or shop where they will decay slowly and safely.

[Gary Baler]

I offered my shavings and scraps on Craigslist 3 or 4 years ago. A lady responded who was building a green house and burned firewood. That lasted for a couple of years ... and she had more than she could use. Craigslist again and a fellow responded who would take both scraps and shavings. He also has a stash of wood that would cover a football field. He bring me wood and picks up my by-products which includes about 1,500 gallons of shavings and a 14 foot trailer load of scraps a month. I picked up about half a pick up load of cottonwood (yes I use cottonwood) yesterday at his place ... and he'll pick up 15 bags and a pickup load of scraps Wednesday. Works for both of us.

[Clark Miles]

My chickens seem to like them for bedding.

[Rick Gibson]

Most go to municipal compost about 1/2 mile from here. Cherry and other suitable wood gets saved for smoking in the bbq as well as suitable cutoffs and scraps.

[Wes Ramsey]

I dump most of mine on a trail in the woods behind my shop to keep weeds down...and make it a quieter walk so I don't spook the deer

[Ralph Lindberg]

I give them away, when I can.
During last springs production run I took 15 @55 gal bags to one friend for mulching, have 5 to another for a pit-firing and burned another 10 or so that were not safe (walnut, yew, exotic, etc) as mulch.
I'll need to find more people that did chips as I filled two bags yesterday alone.

There are times I understand how people like Glen Lucas can sell chips by the semi-load

[Russell Neyman]

Two clever uses:

•> Stuff some into ziplock bags for use as cushioning material for fragile items being shipped.

•> Not an everyday thing, but I've used it in my cat's litter box when I ran out of the regular stuff.

[Curt Harms]

I give mine to a wildlife rescue organization a few miles away. They use 'em for bedding. I keep unsuitable chips separate (pressure treated, walnut, exotics etc.). Those go in the trash but most of mine are pine and oak.

[Jeff Grantham]

Never imagined there would be such a bevy of responses and different ideas. There's some really creative stuff in here :-) My favorites for creative uses so far...

• Using as packing material - especially with Christmas coming up.
• Mulch / woods path overlay
• Use as potpourri (my wife may like this for xmas gifts!)
• Firestarter/smoker
• Trading for logs... cause who doesn't like free wood for blanks?!?!

Of course I can always bring them to the dump as yard waste, but that just feels like, well, a waste.

Thanks for all the great ideas!!!