Burning south pasture tree stumps

Another beautiful morning by the time I got up. Other than feeding my cattle I am not sure where the morning went. It seems so long ago.

Around noon or after I went to check on my burning tree stumps. Today I brought along five wooden pallets to use as burning material.

In the north pasture:

• the smoldering stump was still smoldering
• the "spider" stump by the river only had three legs left as one burnt over night
• the biggest stumps were smaller and hot, but only a very small spot on each was smoldering

For the "spider" stump I put a little material around one of the legs and lit it on fire. The other two legs I can easily cut later, and this stump is the farthest from my pile of wood for using to burn.

For the other two stumps I cut more branches of the nearby fallen dead tree and piled them around the stumps.

I seen my northern neighbor, Mr. D., was gathering the dead grass he had earlier de-thatched from his lawn using his riding lawn mower. He keeps his lawn lush and green so he had lots of material. I asked if he would dump a pickup load on my two tree stumps. I opened the gate between out pastures and we buried the two tree stumps under a heaping pickup load.

I also learned he plans to relist his house and land for sale again this summer. He also volunteered to shoot some of the prairie dogs in my pasture. I gave my ok. He is a good shot as a couple years ago I was surprised to hear two shots from my pasture and went to find him with two dead prairie dogs. He was testing his new rifle. At least today he asked first before shooting.

Along with the dead grass was green grass. It was thick, and it half burnt and half smoldered. But dumping it on the dead branches around the tree stumps enabled air to reach it from below and above. Eventually it burnt. Tomorrow I'll see if that was enough to get the stumps to continue to burn.

In the middle pasture, of the seven stumps I was burning or reburning, one was burnt, two were mostly burnt or smoldering, and the other four needed another go at burning. After I prepared them and lit them on fire, I then burnt the two I had prepared but didn't burn last night.

Then off to the stumps in the south pasture. There were seven to burn. It was dark by the time I lit the seventh stump on fire. From dark to light. A big blaze as the dry long pine needles burned fast and hot. Lots and lots of bright red embers rushed skyward with the heat and smoke only to disappear as they reached the stars. I should have brought marshmallows to toast. Food sounded good as it was long past supper time.

While gathering wood to burn in the south pasture I cut some dead branches from a tree. While cutting I noticed several holes the size of a half dollar or larger. Then I seen huge black ants going in and out. Argh! I had noticed that some of the pines that blow over seem weak and rotted. This is how they get that way!

I believe these ants are carpenter ants. (More inf0 here). According to the literature the ants to not cause the tree problems; they take advantage of soft weak wood and supposedly are not harmful to the tree. I don't know... I don't like them.

This is a big tree. I may only be able to get my arms around (maybe) half the tree trunk. I want to save this tree and don't want to lose it.

Before it got dark I checked one pocket gopher trap. Yup, a dead pocket gopher. By another (now burning) tree stump were lots of fresh mounds of dirt. Tomorrow, as it was too dark to find the gopher's tunnel and set the trap.

I fed my cattle hay when I got home. Earlier in the day they would follow me along the chain link fence as I walked to and from the pasture. Hoping for more bread I guess as their feeder was full of hay. A busy day as I never had a chance to stop and give them some bread.

Almost 10 pm when I got inside the house. Another late day. Too late for supper, but I'm not going to miss eating two nights in a row. I found odds and ends and made a late meal.

Today was beautiful with a high temperature of 72 F. Too warm to wear a shirt - even a t-shirt - when working hard in the sun. The setting sun usually means a quick turn to cool air but the temperature stayed warm well past sundown tonight and I didn't need to wear a shirt until I finished working.

Towards evening three kids on an ATV were crossing the field to my south going from their house over to the trees. Lots of giggling and squealing by the girls as the ATV bounced over the field. It appeared they would get a few branches and wood and take them back to the house. A half dozen times or more they crossed the field. Young and carefree on a warm summer night.

As the sun set I could see a line of clouds approaching from the west. The weather forecasters are predicting rain overnight with an approaching cold front. I hope not, else not much rain as I want my tree stumps to burn up.