Burn Barrel Spotting

While driving into my neighborhood today, I spotted a familiar plume of smoke originating from across the street from my house.  While I had to struggle to gain a visual confirmation of a burn barrel, I eventually found the evidence I needed.  Sure enough my neighbor is a brother of the burn.  I knew this was a good neighborhood!

Young Burn Barrelers

This weekend while celebrating my lovely wife's birthday, I took the opportunity to introduce my five year old nephew to the brotherhood of the burn.  We needed to burn some of my mother-in-law's financial documents, so I fired up the barrel.  My nephew eagerly joined in after carefully being taught how to properly ball up each document to insure a full burn.  It was a glorious induction ceremony brought all too abruptly to an end when his mother dragged him away from the entrancing flames of the barrel to load him up in the family paddy wagon and whisk him away to their barrel-free home in town.  Rest at ease...the seed is planted.  Burn on brothers.

Snoop loves his warm and cozy barrel

Old Man Winter 1, Burn Barrel 0

Christmas Snow 016, originally uploaded by aBurtonVA.

Okay, I guess Old Man Winter is a bit more of a hoss than I thought. Here is my poor barrel entombed in snow. After shoveling for hour upon hour, I decided energy to dig out my covered wood and coaxing the barrel to light up was needed for more pressing things--shoveling, shoveling, shoveling. We'll see if we can get a burn going tomorrow in the aftermath of the storm.

Snow and the Barrel

It looks like we have a whopper of a snow storm headed our way.  They are calling for over a foot in these parts with a chance for the ever cool yet rare snow lightening.  You know what that means don't you?  Time to prep a wood pile and cover it so Old Man Winter won't get in the way of another Saturday burn.  They are talking about near blizzard conditions tomorrow and I don't want my burn barrel to miss the opportunity to blow a puff of smoke in Old Man Winter's bearded face.  Ahhh burn barrel in the snow.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Other Brothers of the Burn

We went YouTubung to find other Brothers of the Burn.  Check these out:

• Here is a modified burn barrel with a rather unique way of ignition:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqk6H1qVkUw&feature=related
• This is a well engineered, burn barrel which is a tribute to the art:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGiOjndXuCM&feature=related
• These Brothers of the Burn have solved the post-Christmas Christmas tree problem.  Burn on:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d830U4ohMI&feature=related
• Many of us struggle with keeping the barrel respirated.  These Brothers of the Burn have definitely solved that issue:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00fecpm_jw&feature=related

There are many more, but we must leave the virtual barrel for now to go outside and feed the barrel.

Fellowship of the Burn

We are starting to find those who share in the Fellowship of the Burn.  We came across a guy who shares our passion for the burn barrel.  His poetic tour of his burn area resonated with the spirit of the Fellowship of the Burn.  Feed on brother, feed on.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXIA8-r0mHc

Scientific Support for Feeding the Burn Barrel

If you are not concerned with our drinking water quality then wake up! If we do not take proper measures to lessen our polluting of the aquifers from which we drink, we will end up with generations of freaks. Just check out this credible article: http://discovermagazine.com/2008/may/18-the-dirty-truth-about-plastic/?searchterm=plastic%20estrogens;
Now, what do you think? Should you continue to add your trash to the landfills, which results in the unhealthy leachate perculating into our water tables, or, provide a simple solution to this pollution by dilution. Thus, this site "Feed the Burn Barrel" has been created in order to educate others of the need to burn and not bury your trash. The water issue is here now and it is real. We can buy some time by diluting these toxins into our atmosphere. So, burn Brothers of the Burn.

Welcome to Feed the Barrel

Welcome to the Feed the Barrel blog, a blog dedicated to fostering the art of burn barreling. We hope to gather burn barrel enthusiasts from far and wide around our virtual burn barrel as well as introduce new burners to this time honored tradition. We would love to hear your stories and see your pictures of burn barrel experiences. This site is the brain-child of the master burner, John Dietrich who asked me to help get a web presence for burn barreling. So, welcome to the ring, and never forget to feed the barrel!