Playing with Fire

imageI’m taking part in the weekly Slice of Life Challenge sponsored by  Two Writing Teachers, where teachers write and share each Tuesday. Join in yourself or head over to check out what’s happening with other slicers. If you’re taking part in the SOL, leave a link to your post. I’d love to read it.

Smokey Bear says, “Only you can prevent forest fires.”   For most people, avoiding forest fires is good, but some people would rather play with fire.  My husband is one of those people.  Since he needed an extra hand with a controlled burn yesterday, I got to go along.

We started by hiking across the corn field after the truck got stuck in the mud and snow.  The area of warm season grasses that we wanted to burn was bordered on one long side by a muddy cornfield and on the other by a wide ditch filled with water.  That’s good since mud and water don’t burn.  We’d have to watch the skinny ends a little more closely.

My husband started setting the grass on fire with a drip torch.  Picture a giant lighter combined with a portable gas canister that drips fire.  Now picture the fire moving across the grass.  It’s not like your average campfire or fireplace fire.  Most of the flames are only a few inches tall (until they flare up a standing shock of dry grass).  They don’t roar.  They creep and crawl–at least at first.

I walk along the back edge of the fire with a tool that looks like a mud flap off a truck attached to a long wooden handle.  My father-in-law calls them slappers, but we don’t really slap with it.  Slapping would give the fire more oxygen to burn faster.  Instead, we lay it over the flames we want to smother.  We work our way across the end and up the ditch bank.  It’s not too bad until the wind blows the smoke back over us, burning my eyes and stinging my nose and lungs.

Now that we had burned a border around more than three sides of the area, it was time for the big fire.  My husband dripped fire down the remaining side while while my father-in-law and I guarded the end.  This time the wind pushed the fire ahead of it.  The fire crackled with a sound like popping corn or splattering raindrops in a rainstorm as flames raced to meet the fire creeping from the opposite side.  With a roaring wind, smoke boiled up into the blue sky and blew away.  The fire was out except for a few tendrils of smoke pouring from pockets hidden under the blackened grass.

Now that the fire had done its job, we could leave the grass to regenerate and become a haven for wildlife along the edge of the field.

6 Comments on Playing with Fire

  1. Julieanne
    March 27, 2014 at 10:57 pm (10 years ago)

    Beautiful writing. I could picture it even though I have never seen it (I don’t think).

    Reply
    • Mrs. McGriff
      March 28, 2014 at 7:54 am (10 years ago)

      Thanks! It’s quite a sight.

      Reply
  2. elsie
    March 27, 2014 at 8:25 pm (10 years ago)

    It’s so hard to believe that by burning grass, it helps the grass to grow. Interesting procedure.

    Reply
    • Mrs. McGriff
      March 27, 2014 at 9:01 pm (10 years ago)

      I don’t understand how or why it works, but many prairie grasses developed to need fire in order to grow.

      Reply
  3. Adrienne
    March 27, 2014 at 4:56 pm (10 years ago)

    How beautiful! This reminds me why I love reading – thinking about an experience I’ve never had before in terms that I can only understand. You really bring your reader along with you.

    Reply
    • Mrs. McGriff
      March 27, 2014 at 6:17 pm (10 years ago)

      Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed reading it.

      Reply

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