One more step

The last day of the spring burning season was this week. We had just built a roaring fire to finish off the brush in the pasture area when it started to rain. I was amused to find that by piling up grass and blackberry on top, making a kind of fire hat, the fire would burn fine while it was raining.

It was suddenly so wet that the dogs, usually stalwart in the face of rain, took refuge in the hatch of the car.
I was able to get all the scrap metal out, a couple hundred pounds bound for recycling.

After I all the big stuff was gone, I raked the ash around, and hand picked the rest. The final step is to drag a big speaker magnet on a rope through the ash. This found much more small wire and nails than I expected, and I will have to do that several times before I feel good having animals grazing in there.

Now, where once stood two 9' high blackberry thickets we have clear, clean ground. Don't know how long it will take for the grass to grow back, but it is a step in the right direction.