Weed Removal With a Twist

There are some things I'm good at.  I'm good at washing and drying laundry.  I'm good at pulling weeds and piling them up.  I'm good at starting a sorting out job.  Then there are some things I'm not so good at.  I'm not so good at folding and putting away laundry (neither are my children. Surprised?).  I'm not so good at cleaning up after the sorting out and getting rid of.  And I'm terrible at getting rid of piles of weeds and pruned-off branches.  I can make the piles, but getting rid of the piles takes me FOREVER (much to my husband's chagrin).

This year I decided I would investigate getting a free burn permit and see about just torching the lot.  It turns out it is easy to get a burn permit.  All I had to do was apply online, wait for a green burn day, notify my neighbors, and call the county to let them know.  The stars all aligned recently and my son Evan agreed to be my burning buddy by standing close by with the garden hose ready to douse any errant flames.  Soon my other two children joined us in the garden to see what was going on.

The first pile mostly did the smolder thing (which inspired many "you broke my smolder" movie references) and when the second pile flared up with impressively high and surprisingly hot flames Evan said, "Let's roast marshmallows!" 

I have to confess to some it's-too-much-bother-and-fuss fuddy duddiness at first.  We haven't been able to find our bag of roasting sticks and I could think of several other lame excuses.  Evan persevered, however and I gave in.  He gleefully tossed the hose down and ran for the marshmallows.

When he came back out he found a stick he liked, got it wet with the hose and shoved a marshmallow on the end.  

And Lo, There Was a Beautifully Roasted Marshmallow!

Bronwyn got excited about trying too.  She is good at burning marshmallows.  She is also good at upping the excitement.  She ran for the chocolate bars and graham crackers so we could have s'mores.  Who knew getting rid of weeds could be so much fun?  

This pile burned very hot and mostly smokeless.  This was as close as the kids dared get with the heat.

Six piles of weeds burnt to the ground.  Well, four burnt to the ground and two reduced by at least half in size.  I guess they were a little too green and spent more time smoldering than actually burning.