Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

This morning, just before dawn, I went out to work on the accumulation of tumbleweeds on our fences that blew in during the storms we've been having: gale force winds but no rain.

( Darn Tumbleweeds )

As it happens, this probably would have been a good day to do brush burning: dry, windless, and cold. However, I've not gotten around to going over to the fire station and buying a residential burn permit. We usually end up only managing one burn per year.

Sunday had ideal conditions for burning the brush pile that has been accumulating since late last spring. The temperatures were cool but not cold. It was dry and there was almost no wind, although very light breezes that helped with the fire and with dispersing the smoke were present. So early Sunday morning, Lisa and I went to work on burning brush. For those of you who have been following me for years, this is pretty much a repeat of the past few years' burns.

( Burn, Baby, Burn )

This is one of the better times to do these controlled burns. There's a fair bit of new green growth around here, but being green, it's hard to set alight. Even the brush from the pile that has been setting around for moths needed some encouragement to get burning.

So the brush pile area was clear. Except that we were about to start building it back up again straight away. More about that tomorrow.

While I was gone for two weeks, it limited the kinds of work on the property that Lisa and I felt it safe for her to do. Work on the roof and gutters was out. Working on the Rolling Stone door/window issue was also off the table because we found that we needed both of us to do it: Lisa working on the mechanism and me operating the controls at her direction. Besides, she can feel that the problem is a gear, and if she'd gotten her hand stuck in it, there would be nobody to call for help. Similarly, fixing the broken ceiling fixture in the living room was something we felt better doing with me being available to hold the ladder and pass tools and parts to her.

So with some projects postponed, Lisa spent a lot of time while I was gone clearing brush. You may recall my pictures from shortly after we returned from Canada showing just how overgrown the property had become. Lisa tackled cutting back the growth.

( Piles of Brush )

Residential burn permits are issued starting in October, but I will be surprised if we are able to do any burning until next spring. Until then, the pile is a temporary habitat for birds and rabbits.

Today the conditions were finally just right for burning the pile of debris we have accumulated in a pile in the East Lot for most of a year. It was nice and still but not too hot, and so just after dawn this morning, Lisa and I went to work to try and burn the brush.

( Burn Baby Burn )

So that's our annual brush burn done. The annual burn permit (good from mid-October through the end of May) is good for unlimited burns and costs $20. We typically end up only doing one burn, however, because by the time we accumulate enough to want to do a burn, it starts raining or snowing, making it hard to do an effective burn. It only takes a few hours each year to do this cleanup, and the pile of coals mostly fades away after a few weeks. But this is the first time that we've done the burning after we bought the property next door, so it feels more satisfying, somehow.

Our residential burn permit, which can be used only for burning yard waste, expires at the end of May. (The burn season is October through May. A seasonal burn permit costs $15 from the North Lyon County Fire Protection District.) While we've periodically trimmed brush since last summer, we never had gotten around to actually burning it, and time had run out. We'd planned on doing it several of the past few weekends, but rain (and earlier in the year, snow) put paid to those plans. I had today off (mostly), so after doing a small bit of Day Jobbe from 4-5 AM, we set out to deal with the accumulated brush just after daylight. It was pleasant enough weather for the job.

( Fire Works )

With the brush burned, we put away most of the tools, but left the hose and nozzle out in case a hot spot appeared despite our efforts. We'll put those away this evening. While we waited for this morning's California Zephyr (now restored to daily service, hooray!) to come by, we sat on the porch and admired our work. I then spied a visitor on the porch.

( Porch Lizard )

That's a pretty good day's work done, in our opinion, and I'm glad we did it first thing in the morning before it got hot, because burning brush is hot work even in cold weather. I was sweating it up in my coveralls by the time we got done, and I picked up some mild sunburn on my face and neck even from just a couple of hours of morning exposure.

Today, Lisa and I tackled the remaining lawn debris, aiming to make this our last burn on this year's permit. During the week, I went out several times and spread and turned the brush and leaves to try and get them to dry out more, although a small amount of rain on Friday didn't help matters.

( Last of the Spring Brush Burning )

That's pretty much the last of the burnable brush on our property or immediately adjacent to it that we can get disposed of this season. As time permits, we'll probably go out and cut brush from the trees along the fence line, pile it up away from the fence, and let it dry out. Maybe next October when burning is permitted again, we'll buy another burn permit and get rid of it. For now, though, we feel a lot better about getting dry brush and leaves away from the east side of the fence along our property and forming a slightly more defensible area to protect our house.

Incidentally, I've edited yesterday's post to include a photo of a truck that Lisa asked me to take for Chris Carson's benefit because she thought he might enjoy it.

This morning was nearly ideal conditions for doing another brush burn before our permit runs out at the end of May. I should have set the alarm for 4:30 (my normal Day Jobbe start time), but did manage to turn out at 6 AM, get a cup of coffee, and then go work on reducing hazardous burnable brush to safe piles of ash with Lisa. Lisa had already strung the garden hoses and sprayer and brought out the garden rake and shovel.

Conditions were ideal. There was virtually no wind other than an occasional light puff of breeze, and there were low clouds shading us from the rising sun. We managed to get rid of a flammable nuisance, and also some dry brush.

( Burn that Brush Before it Burns You )

If you've never been around areas where you have a lot of tumbleweeds, you may not realize just what nasty little firebombs they could be. With no wind, a water hose at the ready, and conditions being relatively safe, we decided to demonstrate what happens when you set a loose tumbleweed alight by dropping it onto the fire.



These things are dry and when not crushed down are mostly air. They go whoosh and burn instantly. In case of any wind to speak of, they blow away spreading embers, which can lead to huge range fires. In our case, the growing mountain of dry brush accumulating on our fence line makes us very nervous.

As the overcast began to burn off, we began to make the pile an ex-fire.

( Fire Safety )

We hope to do one more burn before the month ends. There's really only this one safe place to do the burns (everything else is too close to the house, cars, or other potentially flammable things), so I need to spend time this week raking up the rest of the tumble trap and other loose brush from the fence line and to drag it over to the burn area to form a new starting pile plus an extra pile a safe-but-convenient distance from the burn pile to make it easier to feed the rest of the burnables into the main fire.

We're not fire bugs. Disposing of this dry brush now means it is much less likely to catch fire when we're not standing nearby with a hose. We need to improve the defensible space around the house.