That Thing We are Doing-Forests and Fires

I’m jumping a head a bit but it’s relevant as we have just come back from our forest land.

Once we decide where we wanted to build a home, in the middle of the property, it was pretty clear a couple very large trees needed to come down. Jer spent the week watching YouTube video’s on different kinds of cuts to bring these two-hundred-foot-tall monsters down.

When the day came, I stood behind another large tree at a forty-five degree angle as I was instructed. Jer revved up his chain saw with it’s new blade. I prayed loudly the whole time. No one could hear me over the noise anyway. The saw got stuck and Jer jump back in to grab it, thankfully with no issues. It sounded like thunder as the giant cracked and fell with a thud that shook the earth.

We had three trees to remove including one dead one. Do you have any idea how much wood this is, including all the branches that have to removed? It really is amazing that God created a renewable resource that so large. The downside isn’t cutting the tree to make it fall, it’s the clean up afterward.

Even without this, a forest needs maintenance. Someone must have been on the land working it, like a decade ago, because there were mounds of old dead branches, not to mention the dead branches litter most of the property. It creates a fire hazard. We also need to remove it to make room for the things we plan to do.

You would think that if a pile of wood was already built, it would be an easy task. No so, especially if that mound isn’t in a clearing. Or if the mound is so big you have to pull it apart branch by branch and rebuild so as not to burn the forest down. I’ve had lots of practice now. It’s exhausting but also rewarding to clear an entire are. It’s also a little deceiving.

I prepared to burned the second half of a monster pile, the part I didn't have to pull apart or so I thought. It was wet, so deep with pine needles, I had to climb it to get a fire burning in the center. Jer poured fuel on it several times but we could get it going. I finally took burning sticks from another fire I had started to create a small area of coals in the monstrous pile. When it was all said and done, hours and hours of digging through debri, pulling out twenty foot branches to restack them and maybe dislodging a few mice, all to show for it was a three-foot pile of ash. I smelled like smoke, all I can smell is smoke. Now, I only have like ninety-two more fires to build and burn.