Weekend at Burn-ies

As I’ve often said, I moved here for the gloom, but with this said one must make hay while the sun shines. I have a lot or hay to make, so to speak. I have drainage to dig, I have gardens to tend, I have lawn to cut, and a rainy May can really set one back.

Oddly we haven’t had much rain this month. Normally it rains here until the 4th of July, but this year our sky has been clear and drying winds kick up in the early afternoon now that there are no longer any trees to cut the wind. The winds keep up until the sun sets.

My neighbor and I have been continuing with the clean-up from the December 2007 storm and we have been piling brush and logs for months. Monday morning was calm so I set the pile aflame. The pile was dry enough that it caught fire quickly and it burned hot. It was so hot that it burned stumps. It burned very well so that most of the fuel was gone before the afternoon winds kicked in.

I’m always amazed by slash fires. They burn so big and wild and hot that it seems they would easily go out of control, but they rarely do. Everything is so dry now that it seems like a recipe for disaster. I’m really glad I didn’t wait much longer to burn this pile. Fire season will start in a couple weeks and that will end all burning until October. I didn’t want to look at that pile all summer. It’s much nicer looking at the ash pile.