The First of Many "Big Burns"

This past Saturday my neighbor Matt and I headed up to Light Haven with the hopes of enjoying a big fire.  The property had at least a foot of snow, but the forecast for the day was a high of nearly 50 degrees.  PERFECT!  I had a branch pile of cut-offs that was the size of a house to burn.  In fact, the photo I'm posting is about half the size of the pile that we actually took to burning.  A few hours into the day, I texted my buddy Greg and asked him to join us.  These guys were a huge help.  Without them there would have been no way I'd have that entire pile reduced to ashes...I appreciate it!  We cooked some brats, had a few beverages and killed a bag of cool ranch doritos too!

Here's a few snaps of the day's activities.  It started at 9:30AM and we left after sun down around 7:30PM.  The ash / hot coals pile (no pics, sorry) was the size of what a usual fire would typically be.  When we finally got the thing blazing, it sounded like a jet aircraft engine and the center flame was a good 20' in the air!

By the way, I'm gearing up for the aquaponics system this spring.  Had a chance to toy around with making the holders in the PVC tower pipes for the 2" net pots.  The bottom slots are the last couple I attempted.  Wasn't difficult once I had the wooden spike shaped correctly and figured out how much heat and pressure to apply to get the cup shape I was after.  I'm excited to see the yield I can achieve from ten 5' tubes with 20 or so net pots in each pipe.  Jennifer and I are going to concentrate on fast turn crops such as Kale, multiple varieties of lettuce, cabbage, swiss chard, a multitude of herbs, and strawberries as well.   I can't decide which fish I'm going to get...just might start with goldfish until we get the hang of it.