# Burning 3 year old brush piles



## Cowboy Billy (Sep 17, 2012)

Nothing like a little bonfire on a gray rainy day!







Its a good idea to have a little bucket so you can through a little dirt on the fire if you need to.






Better yet to have a water supply and a hose.







Even on a rainy day you sometime have to wet down the area.







One more burn and deepen up the pond and I'll have a great view from the hill.







Since I have been cleaning up the fields and planting high quality feed plots the wild life has been happy. This field is just to the east of the burn.






And in another field I have been working a 1/4 mile away. A different group is munching away happily.






Billy


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## Jags (Sep 17, 2012)

Okay, but I didn't see a single package of hot dogs, anywhere.  Fer shame...


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## Cowboy Billy (Sep 17, 2012)

I don't care much for hot dogs. But I did have some chips and beer.


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## Jags (Sep 17, 2012)

Cowboy Billy said:


> I don't care much for hot dogs. But I did have some chips and beer.


 
That counts.


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## begreen (Sep 17, 2012)

What no marshmellows?


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## rottiman (Sep 17, 2012)

What, no wood fired Venison Steaks?


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## Cowboy Billy (Sep 17, 2012)

Sorry Be Green

No marshmallows either. As for candy I am a reces's peanut butter cup kinda guy.


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## Highbeam (Sep 17, 2012)

I love the smell the next morning of the cold and burnt out stumps over the dewy grass. The coals are more than a foot thick under a foot of ash so they keep baking the charred chunks.


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## Backwoods Savage (Sep 17, 2012)

Very nice Billy. But don't you know there are no deer left in the UP?


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## rottiman (Sep 17, 2012)

Cowboy Billy said:


> Sorry Be Green
> 
> No marshmallows either. As for candy I am a reces's peanut butter cup kinda guy.


 Your right on Billy, Reese's PB Cups are without a doubt, the #1 candy.


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## Shadow&Flame (Sep 17, 2012)

Very nice place you have there Billy....  Clean up never ends on a place does it...think you get ahead a little and an ice storm or tornado hits...
Looks like you have some good equipment thou...that helps alot.


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## Cowboy Billy (Sep 18, 2012)

Rottiman

Now I have to admit I totally dropped the ball on the V steaks.

Highbeam

I pushed the brush out and up on the pile with the dozer. And got a lot of dirt mixed in with it. It smoldered for over a week before I put it completely out.

Dennis

You're right those must be big rabbits. They sure eat like them.

S&F

The whole 120 acres was all woods when we got it. I had to build my driveway across a 1/4 mile of my Uncles property just to get there. And we are still working on making trails and stuff. Which is why we have so much equ. Well its how we justified getting so many toys at least. I still have 3/4 of a mile of trail to make to finish my perimeter road.

Billy


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## bogydave (Sep 19, 2012)

Reece's peanut butter cup, with marsh mellow & graham cracker, the ultimate "smore" 

Like the water pump ready to go, not your first rodeo 
That fire could roast a whole deer 50' away. I can feel the heat here 
Nice pics


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## ScotO (Sep 19, 2012)

rottiman said:


> What, no wood fired Venison Steaks?


 I agree......dammit Billy, you know how we do things around here.  If there's to be a fire outside, you better have some applewood and some kind of meat available for 'da grille.  For Pete's sake!


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## Lewiston (Sep 19, 2012)

bogydave said:


> Reece's peanut butter cup, with marsh mellow & graham cracker, the ultimate "smore"


Now that's a smore!


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## ScotO (Sep 19, 2012)

Lewiston said:


> Now that's a smore!


Hey, try melted Reese's PB cups on warm toast, right out of the toaster.......WOW.....wonder how a Reese's PB cup mountain pie would taste???  Dammit I'm making one of those next fire we have!


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## thewoodlands (Sep 19, 2012)

Very nice Billy, what did you plant in your plots?

zap


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## tfdchief (Sep 19, 2012)

Billy, Not trying to sidetrack your thread, but this brought back a memory. 
One Fall, my Dad cleaned up his place and had a huge brush pile.  He went and got the can of gasoline, like he always did, and doused the pile with at least a gallon.  Then he starts looking for matches.  Well, it is a pretty warm day and he cant find his matches, so he goes to the house to get some.  When he comes back (we were there visiting for the weekend), I tell him, " Dad, the gasoline has vaporized to much into the brush pile, there is no wind so it is trapped, please don't light it. He says " Oh, I been doin' this for years, it'll be fine"  As he strikes the match from a few feet, the entire brush pile ignites, expands in all directions and a huge fire ball engulfs him.  As he emerges, no eye brows and half his mustache gone, he says "damn, that's never happened before". 
Just thought you all might enjoy the story from my past.


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## Lewiston (Sep 19, 2012)

tfdchief said:


> Billy, Not trying to sidetrack your thread, but this brought back a memory.
> One Fall, my Dad cleaned up his place and had a huge brush pile. He went and got the can of gasoline, like he always did, and doused the pile with at least a gallon. Then he starts looking for matches. Well, it is a pretty warm day and he cant find his matches, so he goes to the house to get some. When he comes back (we were there visiting for the weekend), I tell him, " Dad, the gasoline has vaporized to much into the brush pile, there is no wind so it is trapped, please don't light it. He says " Oh, I been doin' this for years, it'll be fine" As he strikes the match from a few feet, the entire brush pile ignites, expands in all directions and a huge fire ball engulfs him. As he emerges, no eye brows and half his mustache gone, he says "damn, that's never happened before".
> Just thought you all might enjoy the story from my past.


Video.  We need video.


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## Lewiston (Sep 19, 2012)

Scotty Overkill said:


> Hey, try melted Reese's PB cups on warm toast, right out of the toaster.......WOW.....wonder how a Reese's PB cup mountain pie would taste??? Dammit I'm making one of those next fire we have!


Sounds great. I love Reese's PB cups


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## firefighterjake (Sep 20, 2012)

tfdchief said:


> Billy, Not trying to sidetrack your thread, but this brought back a memory.
> One Fall, my Dad cleaned up his place and had a huge brush pile. He went and got the can of gasoline, like he always did, and doused the pile with at least a gallon. Then he starts looking for matches. Well, it is a pretty warm day and he cant find his matches, so he goes to the house to get some. When he comes back (we were there visiting for the weekend), I tell him, " Dad, the gasoline has vaporized to much into the brush pile, there is no wind so it is trapped, please don't light it. He says " Oh, I been doin' this for years, it'll be fine" As he strikes the match from a few feet, the entire brush pile ignites, expands in all directions and a huge fire ball engulfs him. As he emerges, no eye brows and half his mustache gone, he says "damn, that's never happened before".
> Just thought you all might enjoy the story from my past.


 
Sadly it seems every year someone here in Maine gets seriously hurt doing just this . . . using gasoline to light a brush pile.


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## Lewiston (Sep 20, 2012)

firefighterjake said:


> Sadly it seems every year someone here in Maine gets seriously hurt doing just this . . . using gasoline to light a brush pile.


Very true.  I learned many years ago from my grand father to use kerosene. He was a full time firefighter for Madison.  Now I create "bunny condos" for habitat and to redirect the flow of our deer population.


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## Buc White (Sep 21, 2012)

bonfire.....forest fire...same thing?


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## Cowboy Billy (Sep 21, 2012)

Dave

I've been near too many close calls. And done a few stupid things myself. I've learned to get setup before hand usually you will have a minute at most two where you can control a fire easily. If it takes five minutes it could just be too late. Even with a small camp fire a spark getting into dry woods or field of dry grass can be a big problem. On that pile it had rained all nite and was foggy. cloudy and windless that day. I called got my burn permit got setup and burnt it. There were other days I could have burnt but the sun came out and that really dries things up quick.

Scotty

Belive it or not there is not much time for cooking on a fire like that. Its a lot of work the outside is dry but the inside is usually pretty wet. And I am constantly bunching up the fire and dragging fresh dry wood to it to keep it going.

Steve

I use the same mix the forestry service uses in their drip torches 10% gas in old oil. And what has really been working good for me is some 30 yr old square bales from my uncles barn brake them up and spread them on the pile and they go up like gas. 

Jake

The gas today is a lot more flammable than it was 10, 15 years ago too. I used to use gas to clean parts. You could leave the gas in a pan for a few days and it wouldn't all vaporize.  I ran out of cleaner last year and washed parts with it and it was evaporating over a inch a hour.

Lewiston

I use old motor oil or diesel.


Buc

Hopefully one is controlled and the other is about to be controlled.

Billy


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## Cowboy Billy (Sep 21, 2012)

zap said:


> Very nice Billy, what did you plant in your plots?
> 
> zap


 
I split the field in thirds even on little ones. The outer edges and a path through the middle are planted with red and clover and some grasses. 1/3 of the field I plant **** and turnips early july. The other 1/3 I plant rye, peas and red clover laborday weekend. Then I swap **** and rye field each year. The **** and turnips are hard on the soil and need the rye and clover to build the ground up. Those "special" deer feed plot mixes aren't worth the money. The deer don't care how much you spent on it and they don't grow any better than what the feed mill sells. And the feed mill grain elevator is happy to sell just a pound or two. The one I go to has 1/2 and 1 acre bags already made up and on the shelf out front.

Billy


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