May
28
Monday evening hubby wanted me to ride with him to a field to check something so he could finish his work day out. However, we first had to go to the golf course while it was still light so he could hit golf balls for a few minutes! Gotta have those priorities in order you know! Then we rode about 45 minutes away for him to look at a pivot that had crashed in a farmer’s field. We began to notice that there seemed to be big plumes of smoke in the sky at frequent intervals along the way and he told me it was probably farmers burning off their wheat fields after harvest. The wheat was planted last fall sometime and he says it goes dormant in the winter, then in the spring grows until time for harvest. I think a lot of them have been cutting wheat recently and when they’re done, they burn the field with all the stalks and what’s left. I asked why they do that and Don said that it made it easier for them to come behind it and plant soybeans, which I guess some of them will do soon now that they’ve burned everything. On the way to where we were going it was still light enough to take pictures but I was sorry I didn’t have my camera with me! He used his cell phone and we took a few pictures because we thought it was kinda neat looking!
Click below for the shots:
We just stopped on the side of the road to take this one and it’s off in the distance a bit. He thought about driving out to get closer to it but he had to keep going to look at his crash. The green in the foreground is probably cotton or soybeans, the wheat field was further back. It looked to me like the fire would keep going on into the cotton field but he said it would burn out before that.
When we got done in the corn field he was looking at we saw another fire on a different farm but lots closer to the road. So we drove almost right up to it and stopped on the side and took this one!
You can’t really tell anything about it because it was so dark but the highway is on the right side of the shot and we were pulled off on the dirt shoulder. Could have driven down a turn row but I already felt close enough! We rolled the windows down and it was loud, you could hear lots of crackling and popping. This one did feel a bit out of control to me but there was a policeman on the side of the road with his flashers on. Don said he needed to be because it’s so dangerous to drive into smoke covering the road like that. I asked if they would disk up or turn over that stuff after the fire was out but he said no, they would come back and plant the beans directly into it all! I’ve seen different fields on fire for years but have never really stopped and looked at it before. It was interesting to see up close, it just looked like it moved along and consumed whatever was in it’s path. A little ominous, eerie and a bit mesmerizing all at the same time! I’m glad I could drive away from it.
May 29th, 2007 at 5:58 am
Wow, that is amazing. YOu got some good pictures. I guess people around here (W. PA) have tried to do the same thing in the past but both my gram and our neighbor set their fields on fire in the past and they got very out of control! Too many trees around I guess.
May 29th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Whoa, what cool pictures! I bet it was a strange feeling seeing it in person… and hearing the crackling of the fire. Very neat!!
May 29th, 2007 at 7:30 am
We have a field behind our house. The farmer plants wheat and then soybeans. I don’t think he burns it. I am very thankful for this since it is adjacent to our subdivision!
May 29th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I love the pictures. Growing up and still today it was cotton then soybeans and they would burn the fields in between seasons. It’s just scary to think of burning anything around here until we get some rain….which we may get some today and tomorrow….oh please let it rain, my poor poor yard 🙂
May 29th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
I’ve come upon that before at night, and I agree with you. It is eerie!
May 29th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Cool pictures! In response to your question, no I didn’t see the movie. I’m kind of a movie nerd, I like old movies and chick flicks. He and his buds were pretty disappointed though.
May 29th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
My favorite sentence in your post was… “we first had to go by the golf course.” so funny!
Cool pics! Fire is scary, I would want to drive away from it too!
May 29th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Wow. That would be called a ‘wildfire’ in so. california. It’s all about perspective!
May 31st, 2007 at 11:28 am
I don’t think I’ve ever seen these before, very interesting. Cool shots too, Don must have a really great cameraphone 🙂