Back From Burning

We made it back from burning with all our hair, a few new tan lines and a couple of sunburned faces. The first three days of burning were pretty intense. It is so dry in Texas that just about everything goes up in flames. Three years of very little rain will do that. So putting in black lines was a SSSSLLLLOOOWWW process. Colin had thought that it would have been a two day burn. Two days came a went and we only had half of it finished! Thank goodness for a great crew! Our friend Ray came and helped out the first three days, along with a kid from Sonora who rode with us named Sterling. They were life savers! But not to cut anyone else that was there short, because many people stopped what they were doing for two days just to sit in the smoke. Many guys just ran an ATV up and down the road looking for spot fires. I think that is one of the most important jobs on a burn. Colin's friend Kyle showed up the second day and he sat in the back of our truck running the sprayer while braving the heat while I drove. And boy was it hot!! The first day there was record highs...105* F! There was a point during the burn that Ray took the temp while sitting in a little draw and it read 117*F!!!!!! No joke. I think at that point it is almost too hot to sweat!
I ran the drip torch for the first part of the first day, then rode in the back of a spray rig in the afternoon. Colin had the hardest job. Being the burn boss he has to make sure that everyone is where they need to be, or close to it, and try to keep the whole crew happy. That in itself is not an easy task. Working with volunteers is sometimes very stressful. But Colin does an amazing job. NEVER does he ever loose his cool. He might be throwing up on the inside, but he is all put together on the outside. For that reason the rest of the crew is able to stay calm and do what needs to be done. Many many many people that Colin has worked with before have commented to me on how he is able to just be so calm and never buckles. That is what makes him such a great burn boss. He just keeps his cool and stays relaxed the whole time, even when things get a little western.
So we only got the top half of the pasture burned. Close to 400 acres. So we had to go back and finish up the last 300 + acres this past week. Due to Colin's wonderful leadership, and the fact that he does all his homework when it comes to burning, everything went off with out a hitch. So we have finished burning for now. Our next burn is scheduled for the end of next month and that will be a BIG one...over 1600 acres. Anyone want to help?!?!


Colin and Sterling (who is 16 and is a great kiddo!) lighting around the hunters camp on the second day.

The smoke from the head fire...this is what we all look forward too.
All of this pear is dead. Dead dead dead. Colin said that headfires have the ability to get over 1200*F and I don't doubt it! But that is what Bob, the owner, wanted to see. Now the pear will die off and make way for more grass for his cattle. Colin burned a pasture for him last year and he has been able to increase his livestock carrying capacity by 50% since the burn due to the increased amount of grass on that pasture than before it had been burned. I guess the proof is in the numbers.

*****Again, a very special thanks to all that helped us on this burn. Without you, we couldn't have gotten this done. Also, thanks be to God. He protected us and kept us safe when we needed it the most! It is awesome to be the daughter of the Most High!!

Rx Fire

Ronnie and I are headed to a ranch near London, TX this Wednesday. We are going to spend a couple of days burning a pasture for one of our clients. This will be our first prescribed burn of the summer, and it should be a hot one! The weather forecast is calling for temperatures in the 100’s. That in itself isn’t too bad, but once you start lighting everything around you on fire it can get a little warm. I am hopeful that his burn will be the first of many for us this summer and fall. We had a very busy winter this year, but things have been pretty slow the last few months. Things tend to be slow during the rainy spring months. Typically, we do the majority of our prescribed burning in the summer months. In this part of Texas, most ranchers have a serious problem with brush. Most of the ranches in West and Central Texas are over-grown with juniper, mesquite, and prickly pear. Therefore, to manage these noxious brush species, we burn them. Moreover, we burn them in the hottest, driest part of the year to inflict the most damage to the plants. We call these reclamation burns, and it allows a rancher to get back on top of his brush problem and make the forage much more productive for livestock or wildlife. About 4 years ago, I moved out to Sonora, TX from College Station, TX to conduct research for my master’s degree in Rangeland Ecology & Management. During my undergraduate time, I developed an interest in brush management – more specifically in the use of fire to manage brush. It just so happens that an opportunity came my way to spend some time in Sonora conducting research on fire, and of course I took it. Over the course of the next year, I participated on several prescribed burns and this helped to solidify my desire to do this full-time. There was a lengthy certification process that I had to go through to become a certified prescribed burn manager, but once that process was complete, I was able to burn commercially for ranchers and landowners around the state without the restrictions of county burn bans. About a year ago, I started a company called Dryhalla Rangeland Services LLC. The function of this business is ranch/ rangeland consulting and to conduct prescribed burns for landowners and ranchers across the state. I believe God intended us to be stewards of the land he entrusted to us. If you know much about what the landscape looked like a couple hundred years ago, you would know we have done a pretty poor job of it. So we’re trying to do something to reverse the damage done, and what better way than with the use of fire – a natural brush control method. And really what better job is there than setting thousands of acres on fire legally . . ?

Ronnie, being from the Northeast, had no concept of prescribed burning until she met me. However, she desired to learn all she could (in a very short period of time) about this area of my life. She attended a burn school and participated on quite a few burns this past winter, and it didn’t take long before she bacame very knowledgeable about fire behavior, fuels, vegetation types, fire weather, fire suppression equipment, etc. In the 6 months we have been married, we have been on numerous burns. Some of the burns went exactly as planned - the weather cooperated, the crew was adequate to great, the goals and objectives of the landowner were met, etc., etc. On the other hand, a couple of those burns were complete nightmares. Not nightmares because the fire got out of hand or the fire escaped and burned an area it should not have, but because the forecasted weather was completely wrong and/or the personnel assisted on the burn were half-wits! I am not being unkind when I call these dudes half-wits. They deserve much, much worse! I have at least given them credit for half of a wit, when I am almost certain they are completely witless. So in a short period of time, Ronnie has been on some thrilling if not scary burns.
All that to say that the 6 months in which Ronnie has been my partner in Dryhalla Rangeland Service LLC has been exciting. We have seen a dramatic increase in business. We are learning to be better business owners. We have been able to spend everyday together working side-by-side during some very stressful moments and many sleepless nights (A feat many married couples might not want to try or be able to pull off). For us the opportunity to get to spend every moment with each other, regardless of the hectic nature of our business, has been a blessing. Many times the opportunity was there for one or both of us to lose our temper or get fed-up, but every stressful moment has only managed to bring us closer together. As we become better at the business side of this business, we are also becoming more confident and much more knowledgeable about running and operating a business. We have learned from our mistakes and are now able to visit with a landowner and then help him or her make some decisions regarding their ranch that will ultimately make both of our jobs easier. What I mean by that is, when we first started burning as a business, we took every job that came our way and we didn’t make too many requests of the landowner for fear that we might lose their business. Now we are much more selective about what jobs we take and can confidently tell a landowner what he needs to do for us to be able burn his property. I must say, the stress level has dropped dramatically. I am becoming a much better people manager and Ronnie continues to learn more and more about fire and how it behave, and she has progressed to the point where she now carries the drip-torch on all of our burns and is in charge of the ignitions. It makes me very proud to see her interact with all these old ranchers and explain to them why we are doing something a certain way, and I love the way she puts all the old timers at ease by the way she calmly handles the tough situations. This business is very male-dominated and Ronnie has certainly been a breath of fresh air. You can see that for some of these guys the thought of bringing their wives on a burn never occurred to them. But after spending a day with Ronnie, we are starting to see a wife show up on a burn here and there. We’ve truly been blessed to be able to spend our days traveling the state, meeting with ranchers, and setting things on fire, and the best part of all is. . . I get to do it all with my best friend!

Colin