Flunked Fire Starting

 

Large pile, barely noticeable flames

With melting high temperatures forecasted all week long, no wind and snow still covering the area around one of my brush piles in my actual lawn, I thought I would attempt to burn it while conditions were favorable. So with a rake, lawn chair and fire making supplies in hand, I went out and started a small fire on the upwind (very slight wind) side of the pile. It took off and was burning albeit at a really slow pace. After an hour of reading my book, I realized that it wasn't going to ever get really hot so I went back inside where I was more comfortable and just checked on it every so often. It smoldered for a couple more hours and then I could see no more smoke emanating from the pile. So I did what every redneck with no eyebrows does and grabbed some old chainsaw gas I needed to use up and tossed a couple cans of it on the fire. Each time would produce a large ball of fire with a loud whoosh of air followed by intense burning for a handful of seconds and then quickly reduce to barely any flames once more. So I made the call, it is still too green to burn and it will just have to stay there a long while longer drying out before I can try again. Perhaps by then I can cut up the rest of the log laying in the lawn and get it piled up out of the way somewhere. Or perhaps I'll just enjoy the new wildlife habitat and handy set of "chairs".