Big Burns

My parents had their current house built and moved into it in 2003. Because they live in the middle of nowhere/the woods on top of a mountain, there were a few trees that needed to be cut down to make room for the house. [An aside: Something like 150 years ago, VT was nearly treeless from all the grazing land and I have heard that New England/VT is way ahead of itself with forest cover. Besides, the next clearing my parents are doing is to get a windmill!] Okay, so two years ago, they had this HUGE pile of trees and brush and Christmas trees in the clearing in front of their house. They had Big Burn 1. They had a heck of a time getting the fire going because the wood was all wet. Then there was a massive snow storm that started in the afternoon, so the fire had no chance of burning up all of that wood. How to get rid of it? Big Burn 2. New and improved. My Dad covered part of the pile with a tarp to keep some of the wood dry, bought some hay to really get the fire going, my brother and his college friends were there to help out, and lots of beer was consumed. I can't find any photographic proof of that burn, I think because I was drinking from 10 in the morning until I went to bed, but I swear it was huge. The fire was too big and too hot to even roast marshmallows on. My Dad checked a week later, in the middle of January in VT, and the coals were still hot.

This year was (Mini-) Big Burn 3. It was mini because the ginormous pile of wood from previous years was finally gone. My sister and brother-in-law's friends love coming up and my parents love a party though, so they found stuff to burn. This year's fire required work. My Dad got his chain saw out and cut down dead trees.
Everyone got to drive the new 4-wheeler to get the wood back to the fire.My niece and nephew got to see cool stuff, as usual. Here's my Dad showing them a woodpecker hole in a dead tree.And here is my parents cat, all poofed up getting mad that we weren't letting him in the second he came to the door. It was still probably 20 degrees at that point. This morning it was 4 degrees, so he didn't even have to go outside.Not as much beer was consumed this year, probably because my brother wasn't there, and that was a good thing. The Beeramisu I made was amazing. It tasted almost like real tiramisu as far as the liquor flavor unless you got a really soggy lady finger.