Burn Day

Saturday morning I noticed that Terry’s pumpkin was looking more mournful than usual. I touched it, and it gave way. Somehow it had gotten infected with a fast-moving fungus. I lifted the lid and observed a huge, fuzzy mycelium. The flesh was nearly liquefied, held together only by the skin. I gently lifted the plate underneath it and took it outside. I set it next to the mulch bin and dumped the fluid on the plate on the ground. I put my pumpkin next to his so it wouldn’t be lonely. Also because it was full of the more normal small patches of black fungus, and I wanted the mold spores out of the house. Decompose in peace, little dudes. Thanks for the Halloween cheer.

Terry's pumpkin looking even more mournful, with fungus growing out of his eyes

Quick update on the chickens. Between my shift on chicken chores last Sunday and this Saturday, the pullets and the hens have learned to share the scratch grains. They were all together, hunting and pecking at the ground with only a few little tiffs. Bianca is sporting quite a beard, which is about the only white left on her these days.

Bianca is mostly brown with a white beard

Saturday was Burn Day. Terry had cut up a big willow that went down in one of the floods and piled the brush in one stack and the logs in another. He also assembled logs in the fire circle to get us started.

Before the burn--log pile in front; starter wood, right; brush pile in back

At 10:30, in typically man-style, Terry poured gas all over the burn pile and made a gas-trail from the logs to the edge of the fire ring and beyond. 

Terry douses the wood with gasoline

He lit the gas.

Lighting the gas trail

Half a second later—WHOOOOF! It all went up. I should have videotaped that!

WHOOOOF!

We started hauling the smaller pieces from the brush pile to be sure the fire was going to stay lit.

 Jane feeds the fire

Pat tosses in a branch

And then it was time for apple cider doughnuts!

Apple cider doughnuts, baby!

We alternated brush with the larger logs. When it got to be noon, we made ham and cheese sandwiches and ate chips with dip.

Chips and dip! (Note that our coats are all on the backs of the chair. Hot fire!)

We sat by the fire, talking and laughing.

Lunch break

 Hilda calmly left her chair and walked over by me and said, “My pants are burning. Can you put it out without pressing it against my skin?”

Burn hole in Hilda's pants--she wasn't lying about her pants being on fire.

I had my gloves on, so I pushed the two sides of the glowing hole against each other until I couldn’t see any more sparks. Jesus, if it had been me, I would have been dancing around, beating at my leg!

Here is a brief video of the fire:

We kept feeding the fire. Terry’s deadline for the last log was 2:00. Jane raked the last of the leaves and twigs from the brush pile while I carried them to the fire.

Jane and I clear out the last of the brush pile

And threw them on. The fire was so hot that they burst into flames immediately.

Tossing on leaves and twigs

Terry carried some of the larger logs himself, refusing all help.

Preparing to throw a log on

And there it goes!

At 1:41, he put on the last log.

The last log

To celebrate, Pat broke out the ghost peeps.

At that point, there was no more to burn. Nancy and Hilda started pulling branches out of the woods. Some people just can’t get enough.

Pat looked in vain for arrowheads by the creek.

Looking for arrowheads. None found.

We watched the fire burn down for a while. The fire didn’t burn so well when the breeze died down. Pat took it upon herself to fan it. “Is it doing any good?” she asked.

Pat fans the fire

“Of course not,” I replied. It was 2000°F inside that pile (according to Terry). Who needs to fan it?

Case in point, at 1:56 one of the last branches started smoking at the end.

A branch smoked at the end just before it started burning.

The logs were still a little green. The side by the heat burned while the rest of the log still looked wet.

The bottom of the log burning while the top was still wet

Terry went around with the shovel, tossing in pieces that had fallen out and flipping in the unburned ends.

Terry turns the fire with a shovel

At 2:23, the fired looked like this.

The fire at 2:23

A drizzle started then. Pat packed up the food and put it in Jane’s car. We sat a bit longer before deciding the rain was getting heavy enough that it was time to go it.

We played Mexican Train to pass the time until supper. We ordered pizza and wings and ate it all. I made a cherry pie for dessert.

It was a very special day.