Burning fields of dead grass is a common practice in the North. Now that I think about it, I don’t ever remember anyone doing it in the South! People all around us having been doing it lately, because it was free until the beginning of April. So we decided to go ahead and burn our field.
For those who may not know, burning the old dead grass at this time of year helps get rid of all that old dead stuff and is a big help to the ground! Soon all the new growth will pop up, bright green.
Heres a picture of the field, just to give you an idea. I stood on the front porch to take this picture. This is the lane we live on, and next to the road you can see our church building.
{ The field last summer }
Monday night we burned the part closest to the house. The area directly around the house we keep mowed, so we don’t have to worry about that part. There wasn’t even enough grass there to burn, when the fire got there it would just go out. Here are some pictures of that night:
We burned as far as this little ditch that runs halfway through the field. It took us 3 hours. (snooze) So we decided to do the rest the next night.
Tuesday night was another beautiful night, barely a breath of wind. Perfect night to burn. Dad decided to start at the far end of the field and work towards the ditch. He used an aim-n-flame to start the fire in this corner.
Long story short: it took 10 minutes for the fire to spread over the entire field and get out of control. Dad said he almost couldn’t run fast enough to keep up with it as it spread across the field. When the flames started grabbing at the tree line, Dad had the neighbor call the fire department.
The local volunteer fire department was about to have a meeting just down the road. What perfect timing! That meant that all 500 of them (ok...slight exaggeration) came to the rescue. Really, by the time they got here, Dad, Justin and Stephanie had gotten the fire under control. They used rags soaked in water to fight the flames, and buckets of water to douse the tree line so it wouldn’t spread. Mom and Rachel helped get water.
And where was I during all of this???
Giving a piano lesson at the church. Oblivious to anything else that was going on. I feel like I missed all the excitement!
When the fire trucks started pulling in, my student, his mother and I started to clue in that something might be wrong. By this time, as I said, everything was under control. There was just some very tired people and some very black clothes!
Burning the dead grass definiatly is a northern thing. My Grandpa has done it once or twice here (he's from North Dakota) I bet if southerners would start doing it the soil would be alot better!
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