Dr. Doolittle and my dad decided to burn the brush pile. You know, Dr. Doolittle takes too long to type. I could do like many bloggers and refer to his as my DH (as in Dear Husband). "Dear" somehow seems wrong for him - he's too mischievous. I think I'll just refer to him from now on as RC.
Back to the brush pile... The brush pile had been building for the last year til it was quite high - 10 feet maybe. I didn't see it when it was lit. I was up at the house. When Trish and I wandered down to see how things were going, my dad was frantically fighting a fast spreading fire with a rake. That was not a pleasant scene for a daughter who adores her dad. We didn't see RC. Trish started beating the fire with sticks or branches or something. I went temporarily insane looking for RC, who to me is a knight is shining armor of sorts. He is always so cool under pressure and can handle an emergency better than anyone I know. Moments later he came zipping around the lake on his tractor, looking decidedly uncool. He was moving at a speed I didn't know was possible on a tractor. By this time the fire had jumped the fence. I was sent to call the fire department. Side note: Had I known company would be coming I might have taken time to dress a little better. Maybe I need to rethink my schlumpy weekend attire.
The firemen came really fast. Wow! These guys were wonderful. I went to the dirt road side of our property thinking they'd be coming in there since that was the address I gave. By the time I realized they had gone to the paved road and drove around, they had already put the fire out.We had done many things right. We had our burn permit. We had checked the weather. The wind was supposed to be fine according the reports we saw. Ha.
We also made a few notes for the next time we burn. The tractor should be on hand with the front thingie (can't remember what it's called) attached before lighting the fire. A good source of water and maybe some extra dirt should be close by. We need a gate on the paved side of the property. We also need another source of weather information.
Once it was over, we could see the humor of the situation. It was all so crazy, it could have been an episode on a sitcom.
A lot of the grass has now had the thatch cleared the old fashioned way, so it should look good come summer. I wish I had a picture of the scene in full blaze. It was pretty scary for a bit. The picture of the aftermath above just doesn't do it justice.
Here is the fire under total control. A nice little fire perfect for toasting marshmallows. At this point most of the limbs and things have already burned and RC is using the tractor to keep a wide berth of dirt around the fire.We all smell like smoke. What a day.