This isn't recent.... but it was fun (and I've posted this before)
Top picture shows backhoe in background to get some scale. I had TWO of these piles and lit them both off 'around' 5:00 P.M. when I got home from work.
Chose that specific time because it was the earliest I could get home, it was a Friday so I had all weekend I could tend to them.
Got my fire permit, had my phone with me (old flip phone at the time so no entertainment value to keep me occupied at all) and I had the backhoe with me.
Lit both piles off.
Somewhere (and I forget the specific of the story now so if you've read this it may not match perfectly to the first time I mentioned this)
None the less, somewhere around 2:30, 3:00 A.M. in the middle of the night, I see a flashlight bouncing through the woods. Hmmm... wife? Nope (no way), neighbor? Nope, trespasser? Well yes, to a degree.....BUT, it was a Deputy Sheriff.
"Hi officer"
"What are you doing here?", he asks
"burning?" (as if it's not painfully obvious if one has a sense of vision or smell or hearing)
"We've received a couple complaints from across the lake.... some people over there reported that they thought the woods over here were on fire.....we've been trying to find this fire for the last two hours" (flames were sky high early on and now were not the huge flames, just burning)
"uh uh, just me"
"How are you planning on putting this out???" (remember, I had TWO of these monster piles) But the TONE of his question was essentially "how are you planning on putting this out, PUNK???" His tone struck me as totally inappropriate however, I understand he might have been frustrated if indeed, they'd been searching for this for a while and he felt exasperated and relieved at the same time.
"well.... I've got my burn permit, I've got my phone and if something gets away from me, I've got my backhoe to be first on scene"
To which he had no comeback.....
"You know (punk) that you're required to be with your fire as long as it's burning, don't you?"
"Well... it's 3:00 in the morning, and I'm here, aren't I??" (I almost think that ticked him off a bit but admit, I don't know)
"Have a good night" and he turned and walked away.
I gave it about 30 more minutes and I went home (down road about 1/4 mile) and went to bed exhausted)
View attachment 706208
I've got the remains of a fire I started yesterday in the field "next" to the house. A dry pond so a natural depression unless it pours rain. Collect brush there, fallen trees, cut branches etc.... This has been a slow season so far (or I've been lazy cleaning things up) I think I've only had two fires there. Maybe 30x30 in size (I'll drag a whole tree or a delimbed tree to pile so it can get long)
Need to go out and collect it upon itself so the scatters can reignite and burn down some more today.