Fire Logs and Junk Mail

We all get junk mail, right? I mean, there seems to be a metric ton of it in my mailbox every day, and all I can think of is how many trees died so that I would have something to put in the trashcan. Personally, I hate it.

I did buy a shredder to make mulch, but read that you should not shred colored paper into the garden as the chemicals have a tendency to be bad for it. But there is soooooo much mail.

Here, then, is a recipie to make logs from your mail. Best of all, you can use hay bale twine, thus solving another issue that I was reading about. Basically, I needed to do something for the winter, and I rejoiced when I found this. I've made several of these logs and they really work wonders.

1) Collect your junk mail and lay it all flat. You will not want to put any of the envelopes with plastic windows or credit card blanks in your mail to be burned, but the rest should be fine. I like to lay down some of the flyers from the grocery stores/department stores, and then put things like letters and envelopes on top. The idea is that the biggest pieces are on the bottom and will be used to hold the rest in place.

2) Mist your mail with water as you are laying it down. You don't want to soak the paper, but you will want to get it a tad damp. The moisture will ease out some of the creases in the paper and will make the creation of the 'log' easier.

3) Roll the mail into a 'log' and tie with twine. You will want to roll as tightly as you can, before tying it off. The tighter the log, the longer it will burn.

4) Allow the log to completely dry out. This part usually takes a few days. You don't want to use any wet logs so the longer it dries, the better.

You can now burn the log of mail, just like the fire logs you get in the store. Each of these logs that you create will burn for anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes, depending on how thick you make them. They will retain their shape as they burn, since you moistened them to hold the paper to the curl. Additionally, because they are paper, they will start easily, and can be used in the fireplace as a base to put real wood on top of.

The nice thing is that you can use the ashes to add to your soil afterwards. So finally, all that junk mail is useful for something.