Uses For ASHES You May Have Never Thought of Before

well it's time for me to clean out the fireplace you've all been there before if you have one of these and you may or may not have ever looked into just how many ways you can use these amazing things called ashes instead of throwing them out I hope you'll stay with us in the next few minutes because I want to share just some of the most incredible ways this can be useful around your homestead stay with us I'll bet most of you who I'm talking to have done this a million times already in life but just in case this is your first time let me tell you a few things I've learned the hard way first of all you want to make sure all the ashes are completely out with no red embers nothing even remotely resembling smoke coming from any of them or heat at all also I like to have the damper or flue completely shut so there's no extra air coming through this area I also sometimes if I'm worried about it can wear a little facemask so I don't breathe any of this in and I also sometimes like to have a little water bottle that I have nearby to spritz any of the ashes out of the air that start to billow up because inevitably there will be some ash in the air around you all right you also would like a whisk broom and a little dustpan to catch any of the extras that might be around you and make sure you have a vessel with a really large mouth and a very very sealed bottom I have tried to do this with a grocery bag before and so regretted it because there are always those little holes that let some of the ashes get out so a nice solid bucket with a good seal is going to be the most excellent option and then I just usually end up using the shovel that came with the fire tools but any kind of little shovel will do for this all right let's get started [Music] [Music] [Music] two things to note your ideally going to want to only burn wood in your fireplace that means any of these extra little pieces and newspapers those are a no-no the more wood ash that we have from hardwood the better okay and secondly I would just remind you always lower it down really really soft and gentle and empty it slowly because those ashes are so fine they really like to come up into the air if you happen to have hardwood floors you know there are always those one or two spots that are just incessantly creaky well of course liquid graphite is the best solution if you have it but if you don't take some of the ashes get it down in that crack and do a little bit of stomping around on that spot and you'll be amazed at how this takes the creepiness right out of those wood floors in the winter you're going to find that ashes are a fantastic replacement for that salt that can be so hard on your vehicle's so if your driveway happens to be all icy just spread the wood ashes over the top of it and it melts the ice beautifully as well it's going to give your car traction so if you've got a little bit of this that you can throw in a bucket or a bag and keep sealed in the back of your car if ever you are stuck in an ice storm or your wheels are just spinning out this is going to give you excellent traction wood ashes and charcoal our activated charcoal are two very different things so you don't want to get those confused however if I was in a desperate situation and I did not have access to activated charcoal there are a lot of the same things that that does that I would end up using just regular wood ash for if I was in an emergency keep that in mind let me give you a couple of examples cleaning filtering taking out smells and detoxification wood ashes are good for those things just keep in mind that activated charcoal is even better so wood ashes are fantastic for polishing things like polishing silver a lot of people use it as a wonderful easy polish for their silver also windows especially if you have a fireplace with that glass window on the front that always gets nasty and dark and pretty soon you can hardly see the flames inside well ashes are actually the answer to cleaning and polishing all of that soot off the inside of that glass fireplace door wood ash is full of all kinds of minerals but specifically it's notorious for being high in calcium and potassium those can come in handy in a lot of ways specifically in a compost pile for breaking down whatever it's put on top of to turn into good compost but thankfully it's also great at getting rid of bad smells so in the event that there was an emergency and your family had to come up with a way to have your sanitary system fully different than what you might be used to right now with a common toilet if you had to come up with your own compost toilet or an outhouse or such that would ash is going to be so valuable in not only breaking down what it's put on top of but also getting that smell completely out of the air which we will all be thankful for you having some at that point now it also happens to be great for things like if you've got a pond or a body of water that has grown that green algae clear across the top so that the fish are even not able to live well down below for that whole ecosystem to work properly you need to have a way to get that algae to quit growing all the way across the top of that pond so throw in some wood ash and you'll be amazed at how it inhibits the growth of that algae so the fish can have a healthy environment down below it's so interesting to me that wood ash is actually what is used to make lye just by soaking it in water a certain kind of way and timing in fact I have a wonderful recipe from my great-great grandmother for making lye soap and that's what they used by turning wood ash into lye and then mixing it with rendered beef tallow to make the soap that so many of our parents and grandparents grew up using you can still buy it today and in a pinch you might be very glad to know how to make that again also wood ash is so fantastic for a lot of different things it can be used as a dry shampoo on your hair it can be used on your face for a detoxifying face mask it can be used for brushing your teeth just like you use activated charcoal it's not as as potent but in an emergency if I didn't have toothpaste or anything else I would be thankful I could use that for that it also has been used just by itself as a cleaning agent so if I was out in the wild and all I had was the ashes from my campfire I can take and rub those over my body almost like a soap of sorts and then rinse off in the creek and I would be able to be clean that sounds kind of convoluted but in an emergency remember that I said that and you might be so very thankful it's so good at taking away smells in fact if your pet were to come in contact with a skunk and come home smelling really crazy you would be glad to know that ashes are the perfect thing to rub and rub and rub into that fur clear down to their skin and let's set on there for just a little bit before you rinse it out and a lot of folks like to rinse it out with some vinegar or even tomato juice before they rinse it out with water but that would ash is going to take the smell out even of skunks as a matter of fact in the wild wood ashes are incredibly invaluable if I needed a quick camouflage all I need to do is quickly smear this on my skin that is exposed so that I'm the same color as my surroundings and in the process of doing that I'm also helping mask my own smell and I love this by-product it helps repel the mosquitoes and gnats and all those biting creatures around me in the garden a lot of folks love to use wood ash as a way to deter slugs of getting rid of the little white mites that come on the back of your plants it can be used in so many different ways that I can't cover but one way I do want to mention is that potatoes not potatoes tomatoes love the potassium and calcium that comes from adding wood ash to your compost or to just your good fertilized soil that you're going to plant them in so what I like to do especially this year in my hay bale garden is dig a hole and fill it with a substantial amount of good rich soil that it has been infused with all this nice wood ash and a few of my saved eggshells that I love we'll talk about those in another video but to get this full of that good potassium and calcium that's needed it's going to give that tomato a whole lot better start and keep away some of the pests that are so common I haven't even covered the half of uses that ashes are great for like the fact that it's going to raise the pH level of whatever you're putting it into like that soil and water and such also if I had to make a makeshift water filter and I didn't have access to activated charcoal of course this is a fantastic backup option and there are other things that we haven't even covered today that's why I would like you to comment below share with us how you use wood ash around your farm or your homestead or the ways that you would use it in an emergency because we can all learn so much from each other all right till I see you again just in case you haven't subscribed please do that and hit the bell and share this video with somebody that you love who might benefit from it and we'll see you here next week but until then make it a point to go out and intentionally be a blessing to someone today hey there before you go let me share my favorite part of the episode with you it's when I get to tell you this scripture before you leave this is out of the Holy Bible the book of Matthew and it starts at verse 7 of chapter 7 and goes through verse 11 it says this ask and it will be given you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks it will be opened which one of you if he has a son who asks him for bread will give him a stone or if he has asks for a fish will you give him a serpent if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him that's a good word for us today go out and spread the word [Music] you

Channel: PREPSTEADERS

Views: 64,158

Rating: 4.9644747 out of 5

Keywords: Survival, Homesteading, Prepping, Preppers, prepsteaders, wisdom creek, Ashes, Potash, uses for ashes, uses for woodash, wood ash, uses for wood ash, Survival disguise, cleaning with ashes, ashes silver polish, ashes to melt ice

Id: qFosqVs8wIM

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2019