Fire, Fire, Pants on Fire

We had one day between burn bans last week, so Angie and I took advantage of it and set about to get the ditches all burned. We almost made it, too. We have one ditch that we didn’t get burned and the only day there wasn’t a burn ban since Angie had to work, and I didn’t feel comfortable trying to do it by myself, after all I have burned off power poles before and don’t want to repeat that. 

We started down east of the shop and things went pretty fast for a while, then we got to a really bad stretch where a fire could get out of hand quite quickly and cause a lot of damage. We let it slow down there. One of us was on each side of the ditch with sprayers to keep the fire in the ditch and it went smooth as silk. We were both feeling pretty impressed with ourselves when we got to the corner and took the fire around the corner. We only went a ways along the county road to make a fire control back burn. 

Now I am going to digress a bit to the memory of burning weeds as a kid. We were working our way up a ditch when a couple of things happened. The first was that a vole, a type of field mouse, ran out of its hole on the ditch bank and right up my brother’s pant leg. He could have won an award in a fancy dance contest. He jumped and twisted and slapped his legs and finally grabbed the mouse about the time it got half way up his thigh. As soon as we finished laughing we helped him get it back down and out of his pant leg. 

The other thing that happened was that he set his pant leg on fire. He was wearing an old pair of coveralls that were quite frayed at the bottom and that frayed cloth ignited and just started up his leg. That memory stuck with me. and even came to mind the morning we were burning.

You see the jeans I had put on that morning were quite worn and have been hanging quite long so the bottom is badly frayed. The thought actually entered my mind that I should change into a different pair of jeans, but my other pair of work jeans was in the wash and I didn’t want to put on a new pair in case they caught on fire. Well…

I went up the ditch to retrieve my sprayer and then worked my way back down, actually walking right along the edge of the fire to get to a gate. Just as I stopped to talk to Rick for a minute, I felt the heat coming up my left leg. My pants were literally on fire. I had my sprayer and so it only took a quick squirt to extinguish it, but I was ready to start dancing. 

Around here we call pheasants “Ditch Chickens,” so how about a pheasant recipe this week? 

I looked on the internet and in some books and couldn’t come up with a pheasant recipe that would be the one my mom used. So I will share that. 

Smothered pheasant

Hopefully the guys have already plucked and cleaned the bird. If not, tell them to get it done. Wash pheasant well in cold water inside and out. Cut in serving pieces just like a chicken. Dredge in seasoned flour, mom used salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Then fry in hot lard until browned. As each piece gets brown, place in a baking pan. When all are done, pour enough heavy cream over to almost cover. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and back at 325º for about an hour. Take the cover off and bake for 15 minutes longer. Serve with mashed potatoes, the cream will have turned into the most amazing gravy.