Moving the "burn" pile

[woodlandfarms]

Totally agree it is a fun project for your machine, assuming you have a grapple. If not, wait until the contractor shows up, Saddly his dozer will do in 15 minutes what a long week of going back and forth on your machine would have taken.


As a side note, try and burn the pile as soon as you can. I have a pile I have been adding too that every winter I promise to burn and now the thing is freakishly large and I am at the point of almost being scared to start it. It is 6 foot high and at least 30X30. packed tight. No trees around... Going to torch it on a downpour day but don't wait, if you can burn get it gone.. Piles multiply like rabbits.

 

[bcp]

Piles multiply like rabbits.

And rabbits like to multiply in piles.



Bruce

 

[WhirldWorks]

Thanks for all the replies! Our pile is now about 15 feet around and about 7 feet tall. My little ol' MF 205 tractor doesn't have a loader/bucket. Most of it is small stuff, but I'd have to drag probably about a dozen "trunks." I do have a friend with a nice big green tractor with forks that actually built up much of the pile and I may be able to get his help in moving it...if what I hear from the contractor isn't satisfying.

As for critters, I was mowing around it a couple weekends ago and discovered about a 4 foot rat snake had taken up residence within the pile.

 

[Cord]

Just have the excavator move the pile when they dig the foundation. It'll take him a total of 5 minutes. Not even worth the cost of paperwork associated with the CO. That said, it might be worth a cold 6 pack on the truck fender at the end of a hot day...

 

[k0ua]

It has been many years but the big one I pushed across a field was at least 16 foot in diameter and maybe ,8 foot tall. It was moved easily in a couple of minutes by just pushing with a 2 WD tractor .

 

[Ford850]

You might want to make more than one pile when you move it, so you can burn it safely in stages (once the ban is lifted). I think we can only burn a 5x5 pile here legally. AS long as you use common sense and do it safely, no one gets fined for large piles. But if you are burning a larger pile and it spreads, you'd better be prepared for a fine.

 

[k0ua]

I burned one once at about 100 foot by 30 by any 5 foot high. Never again. It was like the world was on fire. Too much fire all at once.

 

[STx]

We had a bulldozer come dig a hole and push a house down into it on our place (about 1400 sq/ft) that had been vandalized past the point of repair. I called the Sheriff's office to insure there was no burn ban, called the local FD to ask if it would be a problem and was given the Chief's cell number, so I called him and left him a message at noon that if I didn't hear back, I'd assume all was well and would light it off that evening. I lit it just at dusk and it LIT UP the night sky, neighbors came down, sheriff showed up and the the FD arrived. The burn was safe, well into the hole and I lit it in the evening because the wind always dies off then, we'd also cleared away a lot of dirt around the hole, there was no way for it to spread. The fire chief was pretty upset with me but after a discussion and him checking to see he did indeed have a message from me, he calmed down and told me I needed to spend the night there on fire watch, which I'd intended to do anyway, and was on his way.

It was an experience everyone should have at least once. Like k0ua says, it's a lot of fire all at once, you could get maybe as close as 60' to it but you couldn't stand that close for long. That think smoldered for 2 or 3 weeks, I turned it over with the tractor and it smoldered for another 2 or 3 weeks, turned it over one more time and it smoldered a little longer and then I filled in the hole. Can't even tell it ever happened anymore, that spot grows grass better than anywhere else on the property.