When we had the pine trees near the house taken down, we had the professional arborist leave the fallen trees in place along with the brush. Removing them would have just cost too much in light of all our other rehab costs. This has meant that nearly every weekend at the property has entailed some degree of brush trimming, moving, and burning.
We selected a spot near the prior owners’ burn barrel and decided that it would make a good bonfire location. It took us a little bit of searching our township's webpage and asking around to determine the procedure for burning brush. It turns out that that through May, there are burn restrictions such that one needs to register for “a burn permit” and call a WDNR phone number to confirm conditions are OK for burning brush without burning down the surrounding forest.
In the spring and summer months, we’ve had a bonfire nearly every weekend. They seemed to get bigger and bigger each time, although we have had a couple of normal size campfires mixed in.
The first time we had a bonfire, Ed had started it at dusk as I was walking back from a hike to the back woods. Before I crested the last hill to see our yard, I saw the billows of smoke and smiled. As I stood at the top of the hill and began my decent, I was in awe of the fire below. (I’m a city girl who never really camped; it was totally cool to me!). While the bonfires have been big, they peak in less than 15 minutes since the pine burns so quickly. We typically end our days with a bonfire; we sit and enjoy the fire with a can of beer (Ed) and a partial glass of wine (me) before heading into the house and going to bed.
We are getting to the point where we are nearly out of brush. It makes me a little sad to know that our future bonfires will not be as big or as frequent; but I won’t miss the hard work and sweat that has gone along with cutting and moving all that brush!
Now – what to do about those brushless tree trunks…
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