Burning slash, look ma... no grapple

Highbeam said:

The thing is that there is a lot of waiting involved. Time to reflect, put your feet up, wet your whistle, and appreciate the work.

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Nice job Beam ,
I hope the MGD was cold enough to your liking

Do you have to wait for the burn marks to go away before the Govt guy comes over ???

That trctor looks like it came in real handy !!! I have a bunch of brush piles on different parts of my property that Im planning on dragging out in the field and burning. Sure would be nice to have a grapple

Yes on the burn marks, they must go away well enough to be hidden by grass. If you look at the last picture of my pickup on the horizon you will see just to the left and downhill from the pickup a blacker area. That was a monster slash pile that the logger burnt when he cut the hilltop. I actually got that burn permit and it allowed a 50' pile measured in any direction. The 300 class excavator could only load so much before he was too hot to put anymore on.

I use the boxblade to spread out the ashes and spent coals and then I set the rippers down to plow the ashes into the surface enough that grass can grow through it.

Turns out that rye grass and red clover are NOT wetland plants while fescue, white clover, and orchard grass are wetland plants. So I buy big bags of straight perennial ryegrass seed from walmart. To be clear, this area is not what most people consider a wetland. There is never standing water and there are no lillypads or cattails. What there is is clay soils and a valley to collect runoff. If the runoff doesn't get the heck out of there then it saturates the clay and I'll get vegetation that likes to be wet every once in awhile like buttercups. It is not groundwater and the entire area has a 6% grade. A marginal wetland of minimal value at best and would make a great garden for pumpkins, blueberries, or pasture. I'm not out there draining a lake, swamp, or bog.

The adult beverage is usually surrounded by a blue insulated cozy but I seem to have lost it. I do limit my consumption when working, it just slows me down if I have too much barley pop, I have found that the plastic ice tea drinks from lipton or nestea are excellent thirst quenchers when ice cold.

The leaf blower is great. It burns just a bit of premix and I have to be careful that it stays aimed properly since the vibration and thrust make it wander. The fire can get hot enough to melt the blower. One time I had a bit of molten plastic from the handle stick to my finger. Dang that's hot!

I have a few piles that have been setting long enough to have grass grown around them. I mow the grass but I am afraid to burn the slash for fear of the grass starting on fire and getting out of control. Do you all plow the area under or just cut the grass short before burning out in a field.

Great pictures Joe.
Your land sure is beautiful up there. I really like that one photo of your Rocky boots and the MGD...
You have more guts than me burning piles that big. I have yet to do it and my burn pile is growing. We are in the "burn ban" season I'll have to wait 'till the first rain in Fall then get a permit or maybe even after Winter? It gets so hot and dry this time of year that it concerns me to drive through the tall dry grass. The Fire Marshall noted a recent fire started by the catalytic converter of a car driving through the dry grass! We also have to clear 100' around any buildings. Everything still is nice and green at your place. Mine has already dried up and turned brown. When were those pictures taken?

Keep the pictures coming, I always enjoy your escapades up there.

Wow Highbeam you are getting alot acomplished! It's even more impressive because you don't have the aid of a grapple.

Highbeam,

When I burn my big piles I do rip the ground up around the fire. I once had a little fire get on some grass outside the burn pile. It was not going anywhere since it was bounded in by the driveway and barren dirt. I watched it burn to see what it would do and then just let it go out. Its the only time I have had a fire "escape" knock on wood. But I have also seen grass right next to the fire not even get scorched.

When I burn I leave the tractor running for the first 4 hours or so. After that the firel has burned down and it does not scare me anymore. I wear my logging helment and sometimes the chaps when I'm cleaning up the edge of the fire with a rake. The helment and chaps also me to stay near the fire a wee bit longer before I have to retreat....

We are not supposed to add wood to the fire once it starts. I have some little piles I'll burn from now on and we have a pile that is a good two stories tall that we will most like get a drum chipper in to take care off one day.

Later,
Dan

"It gets so hot and dry this time of year that it concerns me to drive through the tall dry grass."

One of the biggest reasons that I mowed that rye down to 4" is so that I would not start it on fire with the cats on the truck. I don't know about your blazer 3rrl but my 98 has 2 cats that get awfully hot after a long tow. I am trying a theory that by keeping the grass mowed down low enough to prevent it from going to seed, it will send energy to growing more grass and thicken up into a sod. I am not sure if this is better than letting it go to seed and getting denser by seeding itself.

It is still green in WA, those pictures were taken just last weekend so the 16th and 17th of June. Just this week the weather switched from rain to sun and the long term forecast is for many consecutive days of sun and 80 degree temps. This weekend might be my last very safe burn weekend. If so, I will continue to make clean and smallish piles but I might have to wait to burn them until fall. I will have to follow right behind the burn with grading and planting rye so that the burn piles disappear. I have learned my leasson not to make big huge piles of dirty slash. This requires me to come back and break the pile up into smaller burn piles later.

If I had a grapple I could certainly do this work much more quickly, with less abuse to the tractor, and my fires would be cleaner and taller. There will come a time this summer when I can't burn but need to move the slash piles to a remote area of the property. I might have to buy a grapple, the wife seems to understand the concept of being able to grab things as compared to just pushing them. I can honestly say that I will be able to appreciate the grapple having gotten by without one for this long.

Not add wood to the fire after it starts? That would be a problem for me. The only way for that to work is to have either really huge piles or to burn several smaller piles. I will agree that adding wood to a burning fire has risks such as knocking loose tons of sparks and possible sucking sparks into the engine compartment.

Hi Beam, When I was buying my PHD from an old farmer he showed me his leaf blower that he used for his clearing chores, He said "this fan don't care bout no green wood"


Oh BTW the place is looking really nice... A lot of hard work pays off!!

Ooooh, my logger had a very similar fire fan that was required to be used the entire time the fire was going. It was actually a wooden fan blade like a plane prop. The cage around it is pretty important. I would like to make one of those but all my engines are vertical shaft so I would need some sort of duct.

The logger told me that over time the wooden blades disintegrate and then they use a truck's engine fan. Mucho air and only a 3.5 HP briggs engine. Burning time is much shorter, less smoke, and more complete conbustion with the extra air.