I hadn't planned on burning any tree stumps this Fall but I came across several when I was spraying weeds Wednesday. I forgot that during the summer I had dug the dirt away from a few stumps I came across that were at ground level. I want the stumps to be a half a foot below ground level in case I ever pull a harrow across the pasture.
Three stumps were on the east side of the middle pasture. Two stumps had dirt around much of them again. The pocket gophers had been busy over Summer. For some reason they tried to re-bury the stumps. I re-dug around these stumps, gathered dead branches laying about under some of the nearby pine trees, gathered some grass and dead weeds, and lit a fire.
I hadn't started this activity until almost 6 pm. Dusk was falling by the time the fire got going. That was a good thing as that meant cooler temperatures and I could see the embers float up with the smoke. Much of the grass and weeds are dead and burn easily. The ground is cooling and damp from the rain last week. I could see many embers float up high but none stayed hot in the cool air.
The gophers hadn't bothered with the third stump. Still I dug a little more around it and discovered that with no tap root I could chop the side roots with even a bit more digging to give me room to swing an ax. This stump I removed by hand and did not have to burn it.
The flames were gone but the stumps were glowing red hot when I left. I had hopes they would smolder and burn the stumps out over the next day. I checked this morning before I left on my hike and it doesn't appear they continued to smolder. It was still dark when I checked and I saw nothing glowing and could not feel any heat rising from the stumps. That is the way it goes... it appears it takes several times before stumps "take" and continue to smolder until it is all burnt.
Here are a few photos of the burning stumps. I am not sure why my cheap camera didn't capture the red colors, but I think the photos are neat looking. Happy Halloween!
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