Annual Field Fire
The winter of 2015-16 was one of the mildest ones on record. Snowfall was minimal with 1.5 inches being the maximum amount received from any storm. Any snowfall we received was usually gone in a day or so. The ground was bare for most of the winter season. Even the big east coast blizzard in late January missed us by only about 10 miles. We received 0 snowfall from it. Temperatures would pop up into the 50's every couple of weeks or so throughout January and February.
So Spring came early in 2016.Fields were dry and ready to burn in early March. The evening of March 8 Lee burned the band of weeds on the east side of the path in the orchard. On March 9th the afternoon temperatures reached into the low 70's with bright sunshine creating perfect conditions for burning. A quick listen to the scanner fire channels confirmed that fire companies around the area were very busy. Coming home early, Lee was getting ready to burn the orchard when visible smoke, and the sounds of fire sirens indicated a field fire over in the location of Kurt & Donnas about 2 miles away. A trip over to their house and a walk up on their hill confirmed there was quite a large field fire just behind their hill. Lee & Kurt assisted the fire company a bit until it looked like things were under control. With the afternoon pretty much gone Lee decided rather than risk burning the orchard and possibly attracting already frazzled firefighters, to just burn off the smaller guard bands on top of the hill. Saturday March 12th started off cold but quickly warmed up with a light southwest breeze. We burned the orchard first, starting at the top of the hill and killing off any fire that wanted to spread into the adjoining hayfield. Once a burned zone was established at the top, a fire was started at the bottom which quickly raced up the hill to meet the backfire. We moved on to the big section on top of the hill. Mom & Ben joined in and we started on the top. Everything went smoothly. We got all the guard bands around the top of the field burned off and started a backfire at the top that slowly came down against the wind. This is usually the most time consuming part of burning a field, making sure there is nowhere for the fire to go once it reaches the top or end of the area you are trying to burn. Don't rush this important part - plan carefully. When we were comfortable that the "dead zone" was large enough we started it off at the bottom and watched it race up the hill. The preparation took almost 2 hours, while the spectacular big burn took less than half an hour. It was almost two weeks before we had a chance to get the two remaining fields burned and it was starting to green up. March 24th Lee burned the pasture out the road. Although we were having difficulty with all the fields due to the lack of snowfall this was the most difficult. A good winter's snowfall tends to pull down many of the weed stems into a mat close to the ground which burns easier. The lack of snowfall this past winter left most of the larger weeds standing tall before and after the fire. When this field was done there were a lot of weed stalks left standing. The only field left to burn was the one behind Mom's and we waited for a East or Southeast wind to help with keeping the fire from Dr. Marones woods. Easter afternoon, March 27th provided the wind we needed and since there was no church that evening for either Karen's family or Lee's family we decided to git-r-done. We started along the top and continued down along the woods carefully putting out any fire that was advancing toward the woods. When this dead band along the woods was pretty much established we set it off along the bottom and watched the wind carry it up over the hill. With all the help we were able to complete this field in a little over an hour. The blaze was less than spectacular due to the green grass growing underneath and only a light wind but everyone was glad it was over and there were lots of photo opportunities. |
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