More Beetle Burning

Last week, we burned two compartments, for a total of about 450 acres.  This week, we are working on getting some of the beetle spots destroyed.  Fortunately for spectator purposes, one of the largest beetle spots on the property is visible from the fire tower, so as the guys went out to burn Tuesday night, I climbed the firetower with binoculars and my iPad to document the burn.

We start burning in the late afternoon, so I climbed the fire tower right around sunset.  This is the view to the west.

This was the view to the east.  I have no idea what makes the rays in the sky opposite the setting sun, but it's beautiful, and I'm actually surprised that they came out so well in the picture.

This is the fire, just getting started.  By the time they finished, they burned 2 spots about this size on Tuesday night, and another small spot and two large spots last night.  Unfortunately the night pictures don't come out too well, so although a much larger area was burning, it was difficult to see in the pictures.

The guys are out right now clearing fire lines around some additional spots.  It's gray and drizzley and damp today so we won't be burning tonight, and we won't burn tomorrow since the crew leaves on Saturday, but we will pick up with the burning next week.  Our goal is to get most of the beetle spots burned, as well as another compartment, within the next few weeks.  Because the rain has mostly stopped and we seem to be into the dry season, it won't be too long before it is too dry to burn and the danger of the fire running wild will be to great.  Then we will have to wait until fall, and hope we don't have another year like 2013, when it was too wet to burn for most of the year.