Help! Need to rework logging slash piles

The piles were packed very tight and there were lots of needles which reduced air movement and slowed drying. The thin plastic got torn up by fall winds, followed by heavy fall rains before the state fire folks would let me burn. Now they won't burn--too wet.

So now I have piles to cover again and hope they will dry out enough to burn come spring. But because of the way things are packed so tight, I don't really expect them to dry out enough to burn this season.

A friend who had the same problem took a loader & fluffed up the piles, giving more airspace and shaking down some of those needles. I've been wanting to move up to a tractor with a loader, but my long term needs are only for a tractor of about 20-25 HP (it's the size, not the power, really). I won't buy new for a tractor that I would only use 20 hours a year after this project is done.

Questions:

Anyone ever had this slash pile problem? How did you deal with it?

Would forks on the bucket help much to get in there & work over the piles?

Here are some currently available tractors:

1975 JD 830, $8,500 2wd
Ford 2600, $4,000 2wd
Ford N/H 1715, $9,500 4wd
JD 850, $6,500, 2wd
Ford 1720 with new loader & tires, 3,000 hrs., $10,000

Opinions as to suitability for this project? I would probably want to resell the JD 830 & Ford 2600 after the project was done as they are larger than I want long term.

Thanks for all your assistance.

RS

At this point, I think plan C is to cover them again and try burning after a couple months more. If only the centers burn, then I'll need that loader to make new, smaller piles out of what is left.

A source of free plastic!: Plastic is expensive; it would cost about $400 for enough 6 mil plastic to cover my 42 piles. I have found a mobile home set up guy who will set aside the plastic he takes off the MH's & let me have it for free. Wish I had thought of this last summer.

I have used some of those cheap blue tarps on parts of some of my piles, to give an area of somewhat dryer fuel to get piles started. I also use my tractor and loader to stir the piles after they have burned down some. This exposes more fuel to the air and ends up taking much less time than just letting the piles burn.

If you can't get piles to burn using a propane torch, maybe you will have to wait until next year. It depends on how much precipitation you get. The blue tarps are often available for a couple of dollars on sale. I would suggest buying a few and partially covering some of your piles, so the rain will run off. In my experience, the bigger the pile, the better it will burn, so you might want to consider pushing piles together if the authorities will allow you to.

Years ago, we always put a junk tire in each burn pile. That always got them to burn....but now it is specificly prohibitted in my area. If they catch you burning tires, they not only can fine you, but I think they can revoke your burn permit. So I haven't burned tires for years. You might check what they say in your area. It works, but does make some black, very detectable smoke. It also leaves the nonburnable parts of the tires--the steel bead wires and steel belts as evidence.

Something else that works is moving actively burning material from a well-started pile with a tractor loader to a nonburning pile. It is a smoky job to do this, but is a way to get a second pile started.

Good luck! It has taken me years to get the mess cleaned up and burned after my 20 acres was logged. But that was mostly because the loggers didn't do what they promised and were really sloppy about piling the slash. I am not sure I would have had the logging done if I had known how much mess they would leave....live and learn.

Rod

Fred..... ..... ..