Last night just a couple of hours before dark, Vince came in and said there was no wind so he was going to burn the River Birch sticks I had piled up in the burn pile. I had stacked the sticks as high as I could stick them, had piled up quite a few under the solar panels and had made another stack on the other side of the house kinda hidden from view by shrubs. I went out and strung up the water hoses to have enough to reach to where he was burning. Living in central Texas taught me to be super careful with fires! Addie came out and raked all the sticks from under the solar panels and threw them onto the fire as it burned down. Then she and I went and gathered up the sticks from the pile on the front side of the house.
A couple of nights ago, Jeremy and Angie were over and he reminded us that we need to burn the pampas grass that’s away from the house and cut what’s close to the house and burn it so Vince burned probably the only one we’ll burn. The rest will have to be cut and hauled over to the burn pit.
I had some chocolate peppermint marshmallows that had been delivered in error. Around Christmas I ordered a S’mores kit and got the bag of chocolate peppermint marshmellows instead. Walmart credited my card for the kit I didn’t get and told me to keep the marshmallows so we roasted those.
The marshmallows didn’t really taste like chocolate but the inside was delicious. It was like a really firm bite of peppermint icing. It was pink and not too minty . . really good!
We had fun. Even Vince came in and said he had fun. Our neighbors probably didn’t appreciate the smoke but it didn’t last too long.
Liz says
I never heard of burning pampas grass. I wouldn’t plant the grass since there is so much work involved in cutting it down to keep it looking good. But, as I get older, I am looking for easier garden options.
Nice firepit – are you planning to add some chairs around it so you can use it for more than just burning yard debris?
Peggy says
Wait. Why did Jeremy tell you to burn the pampas grass? We have some that came with our money pit; should we be burning it every spring?
Judy Laquidara says
If it’s near your house, do NOT burn it. It goes up in a flash and makes a hot, quick fire. First, just my opinion, but pampas grass should never be planted near a house simply because of how quickly it burns, and how hot and fast the fire gets huge. There’s two or three here close to our house and Vince has already started trying to kill those.
You do need to cut pampas grass back every year (late winter or early spring) and burning it is the quickest, easiest way. We only had one that we could burn. The others were too close to the house or too close to trees we didn’t want to damage.