Re: idiot govt...
I know some of the contractors around here are using the fans to burn the big piles.
I'm trying the poor man fan myself. I dug out a stump where I'll be burning for the next year or two. I built a ramp into the hole with the FEL and put the spoil aside to use later on to smother the fire. I actually dug out two stumps that were close to each other but the second had a very shallow root system and I did not have to dig deep. This turned out to be a good thing I think. The wood I piling up over the hole wont fit into said dimple in the ground. The end of the wood sits a couple feet outside the hole. When I start the burn the wood will burn out in the middle and fall into the hole. I'm hoping that that the hole will concentrate the heat and make it much less painfull when I have to get near the burn to push stuff further into the pile. I'm hoping that during the first hour or so of the burn the hole will allow air to get under the fire and then sucked up into the fire from below mimiking the fan the contractor's use.
It will be awhile before I get enough wood stacked before I can try this. Today we are getting a good rain so tomorrow would be a good day to burn. But I don't have the pile I need. I have another burn pile, the biggest one I"ll do at the house site. I"m going to build the burn pile on the hole as big as the house site one to see what happens. My house site pile does not have road access so if it goes out of control it will be harder for the FD to get at it. My fire hole is right on my road so the FD could just drive up and barely unroll a hose.
I noticed the pile I burnt a couple weeks back had very little smoke. Those leaves are a whole new ball game. I was driving through town last fall and someone was burning a pile. There was a temp inversion and a good part of the town was smothered in smoke from a single leave burn. It was unreal. But since he was a homeowner he could do the burn. Go figure.....
The county had a bad bunch of wildfires last weekend for some reason. Well, the reason is the people were stupid. Today is the first rain in about 10 days and a wind had kicked up on Saturday so the people were nuts to be burning. I wait for the day or so after a good rain. And no wind....
I have to be careful with burns because the State Ranger for the county has an office about a mile away from the property as the grow flies. Nice folks...
Later...
Dan I'mNOTAFireBug! McCarty