We did a lot of brush cutting over the past two years and some landscaping by wind, losing a pine and a pear tree. We planned to burn the brush last winter but never had the right weather for it. To burn brush in Newmarket during the day, it is required to have snow cover. We also needed to have the ground frozen so that machinery could be used to move the brush and build the bonfire. The forecast was for ‘good’ weather for brush burning.
The forecast was for up to two feet of light fluffy snow. So we had the brush piled in the bay yard and covered it with a tarp to keep it dry. However, we got a bomb cyclone that tracked closer to us than originally expected which resulted in one foot of sleety heavy snow and wind gusts upward of fifty miles an hour. The tarp didn’t stay on and the wood pile was packed with heavy wet snow, not especially good for burning.
The initial plan was to use an accelerant and let the dry wood take over. That plan was a failure because the wood was too wet to sustain burning. So our first efforts to get the fire going were not at all successful. We finally resorted to getting dry firewood from our house and some fatwood to build a fire at the edge of the brush pile. Then we trained the fire toward the center of the brush pile. This provided enough energy to evaporate the snow and sustain burning.
The snow pack was thick enough that this was only partially successful. The next step was to get a leaf blower and add a steady flow of oxygen to the fire. This resulted in a very hot fire that really dealt effectively with the snow.
I compiled some video for your viewing enjoyment.
After the fire was well established, we went inside to a pizza dinner that Wink had prepared. Then we went back out to enjoy the fire for another hour or two before bedtime.
We finally left the fire to its own devices and went to bed. It was still smoldering in the morning when we woke up.
The final step was to collect the unburned wood on the fringes of the fire and finish burning the brush. There was not a lot left.
We got a fire permit from the town of Newmarket that is good for a year. Hopefully we wont do any more landscaping by wind for quite awhile.
Brush burning after a bomb cyclone was definitely an experience!
Mark, Wink and Meg
Mark,
I didn’t realize you had arsonists tendencies??? Weren’t the neighbors concerned? Good thing that Newmarket isn’t in California.
Jim
this is known as a nuclear brush pile, according to Jim Luman…