Winter Burn Piles Warm The Heart, The Eyes And the Psyche

An image from the brush pile at my house that I burned
away earlier this month. Wintertime bonfires are lovely. 

 Here at my St. Albans, Vermont, hacienda, we had to cut down a series of large poplar trees because they were dying and becoming a hazard. 

To save money, we told the tree cutters to leave the debris here and I'll take care of it. 

With great effort, because I need the exercise, I organized some of the debris into a burn pile. Once I set the fire, I just keep throwing branches and logs onto the fire. Once the burn pile gets really hot, it's amazing how efficiently even green wood burns. 

To dispel the question as to whether I'm wasting wood that could heat homes or be put to good use as wood products, unfortunately, poplar is junk wood. It's terrible for wood stoves and is even worse for furniture or other wood products, so it has to burn.

I like burning these piles in the winter, because there's snow on the ground. It's pretty much impossible for my fires to get out of hand that way.  

Another image from my recent burn pile/bonfire

And frankly, on even a moderately cold winter day, the heat from the fire has a unique comforting quality, much more so than the warmth inside my house, for some reason. 

When it gets dark, the slowly subsiding fire is especially hot, and the burning branches fascinate me.

 I think that's a human trait. We've always been obsessed with fire, ever since at least the day of the cave men. Watching a nighttime fire is absolutely mesmerizing. 

I still have a lot of tree debris to clean up, so there will be more fires this winter. 

For now, I have recent footage of my recent burn pile. Most of the video was taken in the evening, to get a sense of the scorching beauty of those hot burning logs, branches and embers.   

The video is below. If you don't see the image of it, click on this link to watch. Otherwise, click on the image below to view it on YouTube.