Late in the day, the prairie burn commenced at Cowboy Way Ranch And Vacation.
The fires burned hot and swiftly covering a lot of ground in only minutes.
A whirlwind suddenly came up in the middle of the fires.
They rode four-wheelers across the spread to start fires in certain spots and maintained the fires inside the boundaries.
Cedars, which are a plague for pastureland, were set on fire. Sometimes the heat and smoke was intense, and when I got too close to the burning cedar pile, my camera stopped working for awhile. It was too hot.
The Fire Lady, Trish Brackenbury, set fires the old-fashioned way with dragging a rake of burning grass.
This cedar refused to go up into flames.
Norm Brackenbury, the owner of Cowboy Way Ranch and Vacation, stated that at one time the famous Marlboro Man had owned part of this land. The controlled burn is to clear the brush, weeds, and trees from the grazing pastureland. It takes a lot of land to feed and maintain one cow. The Brackenbury family were well experienced with the burning knowing how it would burn, and where, and keeping it controlled. It was amazing to experience this much fire and watch it march over the hill to meet another set fire in the field.
Next, nighttime burning under a full moon.
For more about this adventure, please see our other posts:
Cowboy Way Ranch And Vacation - Westmoreland, Kansas
http://surfaceandsurfacephotography.com/2008/04/20/cowboy-way-ranch-and-vacation-westmoreland-kansas/
Westmoreland, Kansas Prairie Burn-Part 1
http://surfaceandsurfacephotography.com/2008/04/20/westmoreland-kansas-prairie-burn-part-1/
Cowboy Way Ranch And Vacation - Daytime Prairie Fire
http://surfaceandsurfacephotography.com/2008/04/20/cowboy-way-ranch-and-vacation-daytime-prairie-fire/
Copyright © 2008 by Anna Surface. All Rights Reserved.
Preston Surface
4 Comments
What an amazing series! Fabulous photos! I’m looking forward to the night burn photos.
I’ve often wondered how this was done. We have a meadow that we’ve talked about burning, but have no idea how to go about it (and wouldn’t want to do it without an expert around to show and tell).
wow, what a powerful series, i love #1
Interesting blog accompanied by a great photo set. I can almost feel the heat and smell the smoke.
YB
Hi YB. Whoa! This took me back in time. Thanks for commenting.
And a belated thank you for commenting to Robin and ankush.
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