I know some of you are curious so I decided not to make you wait to long but first I want to say thank you to those who ventured to guess what was going on in this picture. When I looked at the picture this morning I wondered what I would have thought if I didn’t know what it was. I think I might have went with a lightning bolt striking to set the fire or even a meteor falling into the pond. (Not very likely though.)
The short answer is: My husband was burning off the dead cattails in the pond. (Keep reading if you want the full story.)
The Rest Of The Story
For several weeks my husband has been talking about wanting to get rid of the dead cattails in our pond. He has even jokingly asked me when I was going in the pond to get rid of them. I know he was joking because he knows that I am not going into the water until it warms up. Nope! Not me! I’m not that crazy!
In past years he has cut the cattails during the winter when the pond is frozen solid enough to walk on, but the unseasonably warm winter we had did not create the proper conditions for him to do so.
I wasn’t surprised on Wednesday evening when he asked me to bring his shorts and a towel to the farm because he was going in the pond and get rid of the cattails. You may remember this post when you learned that my husband has been known to do crazy things.
Rather than cut the cattails he decided to use our propane torch/flame thrower to burn them.
Since the torch does not shoot the flame far enough to reach the cattails from the bank of the pond, he had to wade into the water, about midway up on his thighs, and stretch the hose across the water to burn the cattails. The photo is the cattails that were still burning after he emerged from the water.
Thanks again for playing along.
Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care 
It certainly created an interesting photo.
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It really did. I was actually trying to get good pics of the moon when my husband suggested taking a photo of the cattails burning. I just turned a snapped a quick one. Didn’t realize ’til I got home and viewed it on my computer. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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That is a striking photo–wow!
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Thanks! 🙂
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Did he have to wade in? Or were the cattails close enough for the flamethrower to reach from shore? Looks like the weather is supposed to warm up again toward the end of this week.
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He had to wade in. We really need that warm up.
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I had the right idea but never thought of cattails – I was thinking that you dragged the brush into the water to not catch on fire … I did not know you would want to get rid of cattails – are they invasive like Phragmites? I took one of those hour-long Metropark classes and the guide said that if you allowed the Phragmites to grow too large it would reach into sewer systems and wreak havoc on homes in many ways.
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He wasn’t trying to kill the cattails just get rid of the dead growth from last year. The cattails do spread so in the summer he will go in and pull some of the outer ones so they don’t get out of control.
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I see – I see them at Lake Erie Metropark – they are all through the marsh so that’s why I wondered if they were invasive or not. You use the pond for swimming so would not want it taking over this area.
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Yes they can be invasive. That’s why my husband thins them each year.
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See I learned something Ruth.
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🙂
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Most interesting! Wasn’t the water freezing???
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Technically not freezing since there was no ice. I would call it COLD and my husband says “a little chilly”. LOL!
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Men are often tougher than we are when it involves temperature.
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or at least the pretend to be. LOL!
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How right you are!!
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I feel like my guess was somewhat close – island grass burning.
A flame thrower, though? That is completely bad ass!
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When we had the pond dug we had actually considered an island in that area because there was an oak tree growing there that we hated to cut down. Sadly to dig the pond around it would not have worked out so we ended up sacrificing the oak.
The flame thrower is a handy (and fun to use tool) for keeping weeds in check. 🙂
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