Last night John Brady (you might remember Kate Brady who used to comment here, but who no longer loves us enough to comment) asked if I could help him do a controlled burn on one of his fields. I asked how much he was charging to help. I was willing to pay up to $30.00, but he said that since I was such a good friend that he would let me help for free. That’s just the way John is.
Besides, I owed him one. I needed someone to drive a car for Don Stenberg in the Seward 4th of July parade last year and John drove. Later Don Stenburg hired him. That’s just the way John is.
Anyway, everything was perfect. The wind was from the right direction, the humidity was right. John had everything setup. We started the “back burn”, which is not as painful as it sounds, at 5:30 and I think we started the actual burn (I thought someone might call it the front burn, but no one did in my hearing) around 7:00. John’s son in law, Trevor, is a member of the Eagle Volunteer Fire Department, and he showed up soon after we started to lend an official air to the proceedings.
For those of you not familiar with the process, we light a fire all the way around the side of the field that the wind is blowing toward with a propane tank connected to a curved tube. After that has burned a few feet in both directions, we put out the edge that is traveling with the wind. Once that is done around the edge that the wind is blowing toward, you light the other side and get out of the way.
Then, once the fire was going well on both ends and everything was just about all burned up, John did a rain dance or something and the lightning came, then the thunder and then the sleet. It was an awesome end to an awesome fire.
Here are two completely unedited videos so that Kate can enjoy the burn too (she was inside with the grandkids while we had all the fun).
UPDATE: It’s a good thing John didn’t put off the burn until today…