I'm the local pyromaniac....
Had the farm timbered, 20 years ago. The dudes left two HUGE slash piles (you can see backhoe in background of the double picture for sense of scale)
I've told this story before but what the heck. It had rained all week. This day was Friday and the rain stopped. So everything was soaked.....and this was a GOOD thing.
Called to get my burn permit, got home after work around 5:00 and headed out to light it off. Actually, to light THEM off as there were two of these monsters.
Got things lit. Hours later, it's cold outside BUT, I have "stereo heat" with both piles going. I found a spot where I could sit/watch and stay comfortably warm.
It was maybe 3:00 A.M. and I see a light dancing through the woods. Alas.... someone cometh. Light reaches me and it's a Sheriff. He seemed to have an attitude in his voice.
"Whatcha doing here?" (the word "BOY" was heard in the sound of his voice but he didn't say it)
"ummm... burning?"
"we got a report from across the lake that there was a forest fire over here....we've been looking for this for the last couple hours"
"mmmm..... ok???" (what am I supposed to say to that?)
"How are you going to put this out?"
This one perplexed me.
"Well.... I have my burn permit, I've got my phone with me (in case something gets out of control) AND, I've got my backhoe with me so I can keep tending the fire and be my own first responder if something looks like it's getting out of control" (in other words, I don't really have ANY intention of putting the fire out)
To which he then said with a bit of frustration in his voice...
"You DO know, don't you, that you are REQUIRED to be with your fires while they're burning???"
To which I looked at my watch and said "Well.... it's 3:00, isn't it???"
He muttered 'have a nice night" and left.
The bulk of the fire was out so I hung around for another 30-60 minutes.... then went home to bed.
It was however, nice knowing that the Kravitz family (sarcastic comment going back to Bewitched for the crowd that remembers Edna) was keeping an eye out on us!
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