Take Your Prescription (Fire)

 It's controlled burn season around here again. The winter chill has been pretty light this year, but a few freezes earlier in December were enough to brown off the grasses and wildflower stalks.

Long time Pure Floridians know I do these micro-burns every year on a hand full of tiny meadowy open patches amongst my forest.

I do it for the gophers, for the wild, native forbs and flowers, for the deer, for a wildfire preventative, and for my own pyrosatisfaction.

A controlled burn is like painting a room.
When it's over, you can tell you accomplished something.

 The first spot I've chosen to burn this year is a favorite meadowy area that is riskier this year due to a large, oak that is slowly letting go. A massive trunk of this still living, but dieing tree broke off last year and the branches cover much o the open meadow.

A new (Husky) chainsaw from Santa is going to transform much of the oak trunk into firewood, but the  many grapevines and small scraggly upper branches that came down with it made it pretty hard to get in there with the saw.

I used fire to remove most of them and rejuvenate the meadow beneath.
Now I can get in there safely with a tiger (chainsaw) by the tail.

I burn tiny patches at a time, connecting them fire by fire until the targeted area is complete.
Actually, today looks good, but we are fencing and I may not get to that.

That's another post though ... a Fence Post.