Nats/ May 1, 2021/ an eastside story (mainly Croatia), kaua'i bulletin - english blog

There they were: Olivetree branches. Everywhere cut olivetree branches. We had big ones. Long ones. Small ones. Short ones. Leafy ones. Weird bare ones. And they covered the field. We piled two heaps of green cut and had that great idea of firing it joyful up. A hot happening, yeah, like big farmers we wanted to clear the land. And after we were not so familiar with it we delayed it … again and again and again.

And so one morning I spontaneously called the fire station to find out, how we proceed with announcing the fire. I called and asked, what we have to do to light up the green waste and when the best day is to do so? He replied: “Today! Fire it up today! From tomorrow on it is not allowed anymore! Today is a good day though, no wind…” Oooooh, fire in a hole!! That was a kick off. Fast, fast, grab a lighter and off, off before a wind starts – and on top: we had no clue how long it would all take.

And it took long… We prepared the farmland the other day through weedwhacking, cutting back the green grass and removing dry, straw-like weed. But than the whacker stopped working and the circle around the second heap had to be cleared by feet and hand. Kinda fun, jumping in hip-high grass to flatten it, I think I was hopping like Rumpelstiltskin. 🙂

And than the excitement grew, a bit of gasoline combined with our lighter started the fire (yes, we did start the fire!). Pow! Unbelievable loud crackling filled the suddenly hot air. And while the flames were working through the dry branches we collected more pieces from that area under the cut trees. We walked and dragged, and walked and dragged to feed the fire bit by bit to keep it burning. It was a huge learning curve. This first fire took 50 percent more energy than the second pile. For that we collected the remaining branches before starting the burn! So that we just kept feeding the fire-loop for aside the burning heap.

And in the end…we had to wait till the pockets of ember stop puffing … we were so tired and dirty … but in those two funny burned black circles were a lot little ash heaps that kept smoking! Were are the “smoking prohibited” signs, when you need them…? 😉