Ashen Quandary

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Okay, as you all know by now, I have a wood stove that I use for heat. I love my wood stove. The smoke smells wonderful on the air, it's quiet (as opposed to my heat pump which is noisy) and it is economical (as opposed to my heat pump, which is electrical and very expensive to run). Most of the time my church provides me with the wood I need so I don't really have to spend too much on wood. But there is one problem: The ash! As you may imagine, I produce quite a bit of ash after burning wood in my stove. We clean the ash out of the stove, filling our ash bucket three to four times per month. Up until now I have simply left the ash in the bucket until it was completely cooled and then poured it into the large garbage bag that lines my garbage can and put it out with the regular garbage. It is a pain in the neck! The ash is very heavy and pulls the bag down from the top of the can, ash gets everywhere because it powders up and flies around, dusting everything in sight. At one time I had thought to simply pour the ash onto my weeds in my yard but that was unsightly and messy, as well. So here is my question: How can I dispose of my ash without all this muss and fuss? Are there any other ways to dispose of it? Do any of you have any suggestions? Do any of you deal with this and, if so, what do you do with your ash? Please, no soap making suggestions. I do not have that option. Thanks.