It's a cooking fire...

My father in law was once charged with disposing of a bunch of leftover dynamite. "A bunch" as in a truckload. It was supposed to be taken to the desert and burned. Well, he figured there was a faster way.

Broken windows all over town.

Anyhow, I am totally going to try burning next time I have to take out a stump. I mean, grilling.

iceracer wrote: I think stump shredders can be rented.

Not for eight bucks they can't.

Keith Tanner wrote: Anyhow, I am totally going to try burning next time I have to take out a stump. I mean, grilling.

Drill a bunch of holes in it ahead of time. You want to draw all of the water out.

For folks in drier areas thinking of burning out a stump, be aware that if the soil is dry enough the burn can follow the roots and come up at other places. It's not common, but fire is something that can get out of control quickly if you're not prepared.

mad_machine wrote: is it a humongus fungus?

That is one of my dog's nick names.

I let the stump cook for about eight hours before adding copious amounts of water. It was sill pretty hot. About half of it remains, but it's all charred and split. I should be able to chop the rest up fairly easily.

The_Jed wrote: I hope to build that kind of relationship with my son!

+1 Those lessons stay with you. My mom left my dad and I alone one time and we were going to barbecue. The charcoal didn't catch so he threw some gas on it. The flame followed the gas into the can and he dropped it. On it's side. We had a nice pool of burning gas spread across the side yard. Luckily the garden hose put it out.

z31maniac wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: I had the fire department come once and actually put the fire out. I was in an ambulance at the time so I didn't learn about it until later though. In their defense, it was a really big fire and we started it in a really dramatic fashion, hence the ambulance. Small fires are better.

You can't start a story like this and not fill in the blanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH_0FH4Gojw

this thread brought out the brat snobs- i didn't even know there was such a thing as brat snobs, but apparently there is... good thing there wasn't a bottle of some obscure microbrew beer sitting next to the burning stump...

The stump I most want removed is, unfortunately, next to the gas pipe feeding the house. I'm just not comfortable cremating it in situ.

That #$%$ing tree took a lot of killing, too. No telling what kind of fumes grilling would release into my brats, just out of spite. Hateful thing.

We have that rule so now when I have a 30ft bonfire I have one marshmallow on a stick beside the fire

"It's a cooking fire officer"

mazdeuce wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: I had the fire department come once and actually put the fire out. I was in an ambulance at the time so I didn't learn about it until later though. In their defense, it was a really big fire and we started it in a really dramatic fashion, hence the ambulance. Small fires are better.

You can't start a story like this and not fill in the blanks.

School bus sized brush pile. Accelerants. Idiocy. People always assume there must have been drinking, but my father and myself are capable of this without it. The back of one hand looks like tissue paper, skin doesn't know how to grow properly if you remove enough of it. Luckily my eyes were closed, I didn't take a breath, and the scaring on my face is limited to weird pigment on my neck. It did burn off all of my freckles though, which was weird. I have pictures, but you don't want to see them. Anyway, there's nothing you can accomplish with a big fire that you can't accomplish with a series of smaller fires instead. Woody's cooking fire is good.

something like this 3rd degree burns 35% of body, 2 months in burn unit.....i walk away from brush piles now.... i believe let nature take care of it now

In reply to cutter67: I was insanely lucky, I could have ended up like that, or worse. It was 50 degrees and drizzling and I was wearing a wool sweater and jeans which were both damp from being outside for an hour. That's why only the backs of my hands look like that. I only had half a day in the hospital and about 4 months of healing. There is a Shriners burn hospital a little over an hour south of me, I frequently think about volunteering to help out and read to the kids and just hang out with them.

aussiesmg wrote: We have that rule so now when I have a 30ft bonfire I have one marshmallow on a stick beside the fire "It's a cooking fire officer"

That's not gonna work. You had better be burning charcoal or small logs. If it's brush, trash or plywood, it's getting put out.