Burning Bamboo and Clearing Land with Heavy Equipment

Clearing Land and Starting Fires

• 🌧️ The day starts with a gooey and drizzly atmosphere, requiring four-wheel drive to navigate the muddy terrain.
• 🔥 The primary goal is to burn a large pile of cleared brush, including bamboo, and start a second fire with drier brush.
• 🚜 Heavy equipment, including a dozer and an excavator rake, is used to move debris and manage the fire area.

Managing the Burn Piles

• 🪵 Bamboo is found to be surprisingly effective for starting and sustaining fires, despite being broken up and mixed with dirt.
• 🌲 Pine branches are used to create air pockets, preventing the brush from smothering itself and allowing it to burn better.
• ⛽ Diesel fuel is used to help ignite the second pile, but a grapple full of bamboo proves to be the key to getting it burning effectively.

Midday Progress and Restacking

• ☀️ The weather shifts to blue skies and sunshine, indicating potential for later thunderstorms and increased humidity.
• 🏗️ In the afternoon, the burnt piles are restacked using an excavator and rake, incorporating larger stumps and brush.
• 🪵 Efforts are made to consolidate debris, especially large stumps, closer to the heat source to ensure they burn completely.

Dealing with Unburnt Stumps and Ash

• 🪵 The process involves sorting through ash piles to find stumps that were smothered by dirt and ashes and were not fully burnt.
• ⚠️ These stumps are then repositioned onto the hot piles to dry out and burn, with the excavator used to maneuver them.
• ❓ The disposal of ashes is uncertain, with the possibility of spreading them on the ground for nutrients on the intended farm land.

Finalizing the Burn and Next Steps

• ✅ Two main burn piles are successfully restacked and burning well, with efforts to consolidate remaining debris.
• 🚜 Kevin continues cutting trees, with the area described as a muddy, wet mess due to the conditions.
• 🛠️ The plan is to fuel and grease the equipment before potentially moving to another clearing job, with the current site left to burn down overnight.