Every spring or sometimes every other spring in our neighborhood in Iowa the fire department would do a controlled burn of the prairie grasses in the fields. I thought it was crazy our first few years there (how could they burn such innocent beauty away, leaving ugly black ashes instead?), but once I got used to it and saw how quickly everything grew back I understood it better. Without the burns, the fields would grow out of control, apparently. (Although I remain somewhat skeptical of this because they never burned the field right next to our house and it didn't grow out of control.) In any case, the burns were fun to watch, and there's a lot of meaning and symbolism behind burning and re-growth that you can go in all sorts of directions with if you're feeling philosophical or poetic (which I'm not at the moment).
Getting ready to burn it all down.
Boo Boo objected strenuously to these strange people and machines in the backyard.
It starts in the distance at the far end of the field...
...and quickly grows closer. Fire moves so fast!
Then it came creeping up our ridge...
...right to the edge of the yard. Thank goodness for controlled burns. I can only imagine the terror of that being an actual wildfire, and my heart goes out to the victims of wildfires who have had to face such devastating horror.
Nothing but smoke and ashes now. The whole process doesn't take long, not more than 20-30 minutes.
Once it was calm and everyone was gone I let Boo Boo out to explore. (He can't go into the field because of the invisible fence line.)
A field of gold replaced by flat black ash. 😕 Fortunately, everything really does grow back quickly. This was in March. Wait until you see the pictures I'll post from May!
