The “Controlled” Burn and Driveway Progress

Paul started a fire to burn one of the big dozer piles Thursday, but because of the strong wind, it blew into the woods. That in itself is not a problem, since burning the leaves and underbrush is a good thing for a forest every few years. However, this fire quickly went beyond my property into the neighbors.

So, the rural fire department was called in to fight the quickly spreading grass and leaf fire. It ran through a glade on my neighbors property on which were closely scattered cedar trees. These caught and burned quickly, almost exploding with flame. Thanks to the quick work of the fire fighters, assisted a little by myself with a rake and a lot of stomping, we got it under control. It probably travelled through more than 100 acres, but didn’t do much more than burn grass, leaves, and underbrush. The real danger of letting it go was if it made it to Dove mountain, which could have caused some serious timber fires. As a plus, it burned through a few old dozer piles near the edge of my property (above).

We left the fire line on my property to let it take its course through the woods. It looked like a river of fire. I debated whether to leave it or not, but decided that since Paul had dug in some good fire breaks and that it was contained, we left about 11:00pm. I got up and went out at 5:00am to check on it and the fire line had made its way almost through the entire northern half of the 80 acres, leaving a blackened, but much cleaner forest floor. It started raining this evening, putting out the remaining fire.

In the mean time today, 7 more truck loads of “zero to six” rock (a mixture of rock from 6” down to just fines; cheaper and better for this kind of road) were delivered as progress continued covering the road bed from the gate into the building site. They made it in about three quarters of the way before the rains started. 

The building site is almost completely cleared. Just need to finish the edges, widen the road as it enters the clearing, clear the easement for the power lines (about 900’), and do some final grading. It’s turning out well.  This is a view looking to the east past a large white oak and over the pond. This is turning out to be a huge project just to get to the point where we can start the first building. But I love it.