Well, it's 3:30 AM

[Mobuck]

and I'm still awake. Son decided yesterday would be a fine day to burn the house sized pile of trees and brush that accumulated during and following the post fire cleanup. Seemed like it might be OK when he texted me the plan @ 10AM. Seemed much less like a good idea when he finally showed up @ 3PM after 5 hours of rain and wet snow soaked the brushpile. Even with the considerable amount of dead dry cedar, the fire started slowly and didn't really get hot enough to burn through the pile in a reasonable amount of time. About 6PM the boys went home leaving the smoldering remains for me to watch. What could go wrong? Around 9-10PM, the wind picked up and the fire became more vigorous. I wasn't about to leave it and then about midnight, the wind direction shifted pushing the fire into more cedar tops which lit up pretty quickly.
I've been going out every 15-30 minutes since 6:30 PM just making sure it's not trying to run away with itself.

 

[gunman42782]

Sounds like a not so fun night.

 

[Mobuck]

It's time to start the morning coffee now. If I'm lucky, I'll catch a 2 hour nap after morning chores.

 

[woodsy]

Did you call "the boys" to come back to handle it?
Just wondering.

 

[jimbo1096]

Hey, let’s look at the bright side, at least you were up in time to make the time change at 2 o’clock. And you didn’t burn the rest of the forest down. So that’s two good things!
good morning to you Mobuck

 

[wolfsong]

It never ends, does it?

 

[Mobuck]

No sleep again tonight. Wind has picked up to 12-15 mph. Most of the small stuff has burned but the big stuff is still intact and burning slowly.

 

[ronto]

I didn't get much sleep either when my neighbor decided to burn his 125 acres of mainly red cedar trees. My house was surrounded by red cedar at the time. The fire encroached on my property a few times during the day but he put it out in time. Some stumps on his side smoldered for 2 days so I had to keep alert then also. The good result was a controlled burn is much better than a wild fire.

 

[Mobuck]

The wind calmed a bit around 3:30 AM and I got 3 hours of sleep in the recliner.

 

[southernbuck101]

Sounds like my kind of fire.
I'm known as a "Controlled PyroEngineer" in these parts (Pyromaniac is such an ugly, and suggestive word).

In my experience, if you did not strategically build the pile yourself, without a tractor to push with, it can be challenging to get started under raining conditions unless you throw a tire in the mix.
Which is highly frowned on these days by local authorities.
Persistence generally takes longer than you plan for in an event like this.

Just call your buddies and have them bring beer and steaks, or Brats to grill,and you will generally have help till the beer runs out.

 

[the_leper_colony]

... (Pyromaniac is such an ugly, and suggestive word)...

Oh, I don't know - some folks advertise it!