Burn Baby Burn!

Saturday we began burning stumps. As of today we have had lots and lots and lots... well, you get the idea.... of smoke. The stumps don't seem to have been reduced in size much and several of the neighbors are somewhat irritated. The weather has been very warm for January and tomorrow is supposed to set a new record high but what we really need right now is WIND. It would help fuel the fires so that they would burn rather than smolder and it would keep the smoke moving rather than just hanging around. I hope that tomorrow might be a "rather blustery day" to help the process along but alas, I lost my power over the weather when.... OK, I have absolutely no control over any part of the weather but wouldn't it be fun if you could turn the wind or rain or sun off and on like a switch? Until I invent that contraption, I'll just sit and watch the smoke roll by and pray that the stumps will burn completely (and soon).

Rocks and roots

I know this will sound weird to most people but we have been having a grand ole time picking up rocks and roots to clear the land. We still can't burn the stumps and it is looking very possible that it may be next winter before we are able to put trees in the ground since we can't finish clearing it unless we can burn. If the ban isn't lifted in the next 2-3 weeks, it will probably be impossible to go forward until 2009. In the meantime, there is still lots to be done. Lots of rocks, lots of roots :) ! D marked off the acres in sections and we work on part of a section each chance we get. We pull the 4-wheeler into the area, load up the wagon with roots, put rocks in buckets on the wagon, and when needed we rake the roots and stumps off into the burn piles and dump the rocks at the side of the garden shed to be used for building things with later (lots of plans as always!). We really like working together with our hands and the children enjoy it (since we don't do it every hour of every day). Our prayer is that years from now they will look at and remember all the hours spent talking and laughing as we did something useful with land that was in an almost useless state. If the land can't be cleared (burned)in time, we will just plant a cover crop between the piles to hold in the soil in case we ever do get rain again. The rabbits and deer will love us, I'm sure!