A Big Ball of Mess
Like most small-holdings, we have a burn pile: a place to throw branch trimmings, cardboard, scrap lumber, and fence posts. Periodically we'll check with the DEQ to see if it is OK to burn that day, and then light off the pile during cool and cloudy weather (never in summer, of course). This spring Lou undertook to clear some old fencing out of the pasture; this was a good and noble endeavor, since old fencing will tangle up in the rotary cutter or pop the teeth off the sickle bar mower. He apparently brought it up to the burn pile with the tractor. It had a bunch of old fenceposts tangled up in it, and I think his hope was that they would burn off, leaving only the fencing behind. However, it turns out that when you have too much air space in the burn pile, as you do when the pile consists of 50% metal fencing and 50% scrap wood, the pile doesn't really get a good burn going.
Kurt on 05.29.11 @ 09:53 PM PST [more...]

