The French love to open burn

[drewmo]

One thing that I've learned living in France is that to burn in giant piles anything and everything off your property is OK with the rest of the nation, as long as you don't do it on Sundays. Today being Monday, I'm on my way to work and I see some old guy with his wife cutting down a treee of sorts (it looked like a 40 ft. weed), then dragging the small and not-so-small branches across the road into a field. On my way home to lunch I notice the giant, and I mean giant pile, of brush ready to burn. What really caught my eye was the TIRE set dead-middle at the bottom of the pile. On my way back to work, I noticed nothing for a long ways, because I was in a cloud of smoke for about a mile. I'm assuming the pile of brush was smoldering away just as planned.

 

[Gooserider]

Back when I was a kid, (would have been late 60's / early 70's) I helped an uncle clear some land for a subdivision he was developing - first stop in the AM was at the gas station for all the old tires they had, a bunch of empty soda bottles and several gallons of gas. Essentially the days process was to cut as much brush as possible in an area. stacking it in a pile with a few tires at the base. When the pile got to high to toss more brush on, or was getting inconveniently far from where we were cutting, one of the adults would soak the pile with a gallon or two of gas, and then light it off with a Molotov made from one of the soda bottles... The tire provided the heat needed to burn all the green brush.

It worked and nobody seemed to mind...

Gooserider

 

[BrotherBart]

I haven't been back to France since the mid 90's but I found it damned civilized that there were ash trays in the elevators. At least back then.

 

[RedRanger]

Love those old tires to get a brush pile burning. Out here on the Island, and on my little acreage, I still make sure that I wait for a foggy and drizzly day before I light up. That way, any snoops or crazies don`t even know that I have used a tire to get that crap burning. Of course, I only do that when the diesel won`t cut the mustard. :smirk:

 

[mikeathens]

When I was in Japan, I was amazed at how much the Japaneese loved to open burn - there were fires EVERYWHERE - even in the "subdivisions" - trash, brush, kitchen waste - everything. And this is coming form someone from SE Ohio - where open burning is KING!