Another burning day

Another day of burning tree stumps. I am getting close to being done for the year. Of the two stumps in the north pasture I declared victory. While I like the tree stump to be a hole in the ground with ashes where the stump stood, the effort to burn the stump down another two inches on each try is getting old. Since these stumps are now a half foot below ground level I feel this is good enough.

Later when the stump and ashes cool and quit the little smoldering they are now doing, I will fill the dirt dug from around the stump back into the hole and in the coming years no one will know a stump once stood there. Years later someone can be surprised to find a stump there.

This happened to me when digging in my garden. The other week I was using my spade to turn the soil and going deep I struck a hard object. I found it to be the top of a small stump. I dug a large hole around the stump to be able to pull it from the ground. I failed to remove the stump as one root kept going down and down. After some effort with an ax I was able to break off the top 6 inches. No tree has stood there for decades. The wood was dense, heavy and just as it was when a tree grew from it. All this time did not rot or soften the wood. I think the same will be true for the two stumps in the north pasture. Their wood is dense.

Even from the house I can see the smoke rising from the smoldering stump in the far SW pasture. That hole must be halfway to China by now!

I have five stumps left that I am burning in the middle pasture. Two stumps were smoldering steadily but I tossed some tree branches and grass on them to speed their burn up. I anticipate no more effort needed on them tomorrow.

The other three stumps... I would like to finish them off also. Then I would be done with that part of the pasture, and done for the year. But they are dense and tough to burn. I anticipate them being there tomorrow after today's burn dies down. I'll try again tomorrow.

For some of the wood I have been cutting dead branches from a few fallen trees. Today I finished cutting all the branches from one of the trees, even though I haven't used all the branches for the burnings. On the to-do list this summer is to cut the trees up for firewood.

The other day as the cattle took their afternoon siesta one heifer laid on her side with her legs sticking out and no movement. After a few minutes she got up and switched to the kneeling position like the other cattle. I hate when cattle lay like that as I then think something is wrong with them.

Last night was cold. 26 F as a low on my thermometer next to the house. At 9 am the cattle's water trough still had a thin but solid layer of ice and the temperature then was 40 F. Another chilly night tonight as the thermometer is currently reading 32 F.