For over three years, we’ve had a huge pile of tree debris and brush sitting beside our driveway. It was placed there by a forest management guy named Herb who was handling the fallen trees from the legendary windstorm of 2019. Technically it’s our neighbors’ property, so they paid Herb for the work, but Herb ended up deciding not to finish the job, and left a number of massive piles scattered across their land. They’ve been eyesores to us, so we finally talked to our neighbors about it and got permission to burn them.
Here’s what the main pile looked like this morning:
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the pile is probably six feet high and at least twenty feet in diameter. It’s pretty massive. And I was standing on the driveway when I took the picture– that’s why we get to see it every day when we leave or return.
Our trusty friend Allen came over today with his propane torch, and showed us the proper way to burn debris. (“I’m kind of a pyro”, he kept mentioning.) When he first lit it, the flames were impressive and probably shot ten feet into the air.
He continued around the pile, lighting it at different points. The heat was intense.
Once the main pile had settled a bit, he torched another nearby pile. It’s not as big, and a little farther from the driveway, but still something that should’ve been taken care of years ago by Herb.
Now Pepper and I are glancing out the window now and then to make sure nothing gets out of control. Already the pile has been reduced to a lot of ash, and is generally just smouldering. In the end, I’m not sure if we’re going to actually gain anything with this project; it might just end up looking like a big ugly pile of burned debris. But hey, I learned how to do one more manly outdoorsey Montana thing!