yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Most of my experience with fire has been with controlled burns at the farm to keep some area in early succession. We are building our retirement home about 20 minutes from the farm. Last fall I did some brush clearing with my JD 35G mini excavator. We have a large dip just north of the house we are building. The bottom of it was sharp enough that it was difficult to mow with the tractor. In the long run I'd like to put this area into weed management for deer. Since they did a bunch of excavating for our basement, the plan was just to put the brush in the dip and have them spread any dirt not need for fill over them (I did get them to separate the topsoil so we can apply that on the top). It turn out it was hard for them to cover the brush.
So, I decided to give fire a try. I dug a hole about 8' deep and 10' long with the 35G. I then put about 80% of the brush in it. I tried to put as much of the small airy stuff in first and then put in the long, stumps, and heavier material. I got about 80% of the brush in the hole.
We have a burn ban from the middle of Feb through the end of April in our state and we can't have an open fire until after 4PM. With the brush extending a bit above ground level, I did not want to take any liability risk of starting before 4PM. The hole is only about 10 yards from the edge of the woods. We got a favorable wind today so I decided to fire it up.
I didn't have a drip torch at the retirement property, so I just mixed some gas and diesel. The bruh was pretty dry anyway. I lit it on the downwind side just to be extra careful. It slowly backed up. Here is a pic:
Here it is after dark as seen from one of the security cameras on the barn:
It will likely burn all night, but it is now well contained in the bottom of the hole.
So, I decided to give fire a try. I dug a hole about 8' deep and 10' long with the 35G. I then put about 80% of the brush in it. I tried to put as much of the small airy stuff in first and then put in the long, stumps, and heavier material. I got about 80% of the brush in the hole.
We have a burn ban from the middle of Feb through the end of April in our state and we can't have an open fire until after 4PM. With the brush extending a bit above ground level, I did not want to take any liability risk of starting before 4PM. The hole is only about 10 yards from the edge of the woods. We got a favorable wind today so I decided to fire it up.
I didn't have a drip torch at the retirement property, so I just mixed some gas and diesel. The bruh was pretty dry anyway. I lit it on the downwind side just to be extra careful. It slowly backed up. Here is a pic:
Here it is after dark as seen from one of the security cameras on the barn:
It will likely burn all night, but it is now well contained in the bottom of the hole.
