Lighting up the night ... and the day

We burned the pasture on MIL's ranch this weekend. Man, that's a helluva sight. If you've never seen it, you really should try. Especially a night burn. Those are the coolest.

We started Friday night about 6 p.m. went around the perimeter of the ranch lighting (Steve and his brother, Bryan, with my two boys driving the 4-wheelers for them).

At one point, there were lines of fire zig-zagging across the pasture. That looked very cool. It made me think of a lava field.

Not all of it burned on Friday night as there was virtually no wind to blow it onward so, yesterday, we had to burn more. It was a bit windy now, but we had a good buffer zone all along the edges of the ranch of several hundred feet. Gave us a nice safety zone. After much re-lighting, finally got about 90% of it burned which is great. To top it off in the good luck department, it rained 1.5" last night. In a few weeks, we'll have the most gorgeous green grass you've ever seen.

Now, before you get your poisoned keyboards all warmed up and ready to post a hateful comment about our irresponsibility on actually lighting fires when there have been so many devastating wildfires lately, just let me make a few points:

1) That county has had rain - and a decent amount of rain - lately.

2) Because of the recent rains (and snows) the burn ban in Kansas has been lifted.

3) The Kansas Livestock Association issued a newsletter recommending that ranchers burn their pastures after the recent moisture and burn off all that old, dried grass and brush. If they don't, and it gets dry again, the wildfires will be worse than ever this summer.

4) There was no wind when we burned. In fact, one really needs a decent 10-15 mph wind to burn really effectively but, for safety's sake, we waited until there was none this year. (That is partly why we burned at night. The wind often dies at dusk.)

5) There were 25-gallon tanks of water on each 4-wheeler and Rhonda and I were constantly patrolling in the truck with another 200-gallon tank in the back full of more water.

Burning has almost become kind of a family holiday for us. Everyone gets involved, except Hazel (MIL) who is less than thrilled with fire. The brothers burn, the sons drive, the wives supervise and keep the water handy. Everyone enjoys it. After it's all lit, we retire to the deck on the house and watch the fire work it's way over the hills. I repeat, it really is a helluva sight.