5:52 AM. The fire burns bright and hot this Monday morning. I stepped out at 3 AM, couldn't sleep. Flakes were falling lightly from the sky. I was happy. A chance of a blanket of snow to cover our little blue stem seeding in the front meadow. As I type this, 3 hours later, there's no accumulation. Bummer.
Last evening Hayden (15 yrs. old) and I burned a small patch of little bluestem in the meadow at my mom's. The wind was blowing across the field to the west in gusts over 15 miles an hour. The perimeter of the patch was mowed last fall . . . a good fire break, about 6 feet wide all the way around.
In a matter of minutes the fire jumped the break and ignited another patch of blue stem and other prairie plants ten feet away. We put the whole thing out with our backpack sprayers leaving a burnt patch the size of a car hood.
Before we bought a couple of backpack sprayers we would go into the DNR station and borrow theirs. One time DNR John explained what would happen if the fire got away from us. Whatever it takes for us to get that fire put out, he said, you pay for. That means men, bulldozers, and airplanes if we need them.
We've been a little more careful ever since.
Off to the mail trail.
Fire 186
4.7.25
