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          My heart has stopped beating so fast and the adrenaline is sinking a bit.  I did my first pit fire today.  I’m not sure what time I started, but I lit it at 11 am.  It was already 70 degrees and the wind had picked up a little.  The bottom layer was juniper splinters and newspaper, then my work wrapped in newspaper, and then horse poop, followed by mostly juniper but a little oak.

          I lit it and it started burning right away.  It was then that I started thinking, “What am I doing?”  There was no red flag, but it was hardly ideal conditions to burn.  My heart started racing.  The first 5 minutes seemed SO LONG.  The fire was well contained within the chest-deep pit and the flames were barely visible above the edge.  I wondered if anyone could see the flames or smoke.

 

 

          A spotter plane flew right above me.  “Some idiot down there is burning in their yard,” they probably thought.  I wonder if they radioed my location.  I can see the highway through the trees and see lots of travel trailers going by, but no fire truck.  I’m holding my breath.  Okay, breathe

          I let it burn 45 minutes and then decided to put roof tin over it to make it a reduction fire instead of adding more wood.  So I did, and put some rocks and dirt on it to hold it down and seal it.  It now smolders no more than a BBQ grill.

          At 2:45 I took the tin off the fire.  I hope nothing cracks.  I did that because I thought it might just all turn black.  I can see a couple of pieces all covered with ash.   They don’t look broken, so far.  The next day, I pulled the pieces out of the ash.  Nothing was broken or cracked.  I got a nice, but minimal brown effect from the salt-soaked rags I wrapped around the pieces.  And there was some black from the rags and the smoldering fire.  All in all I am satisfied with my first pit fire.

          Next time, I’ll add rock salt to the fire and put more wood on.

 

BARREL FIRE- SEPTEMBER 2008

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