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When I was young, visiting my Great Grandmother’s house in Pennsylvania, I found it very interesting that a normal practice was to take your trash (I am sure select items) to a barrel in the backyard and light it on fire a couple of times a week. Poof all your trash was gone. Why aren’t we all doing this? Well… obviously I realized later that there are a lot of harmful chemicals in some of that burning trash which is then going into the atmosphere. I still thought it was cool to just set a barrel on fire and enjoy the show. Call me a pyromaniac, that’s fine.
20 years later.. I was very excited to learn in my quest of making a healthy garden that ash can be very helpful in my compost. In Florida, we are able to burn yard waste from cutting grass tree trimmings or just clearing parts of your land. Yay! This means I need a burn barrel!
So I do what anyone else living in 2023 does. I got on Amazon and typed in ‘Metal Drum‘. It was a surprise to me that this simple barrel to burn things in cost $150. Ummmm.. no thank you. So I decided to ask around. Long story short- Home Depot sent me to a local marina, and the local marina sent me to an oil supplier in my town. They happened to have old barrels for sale for $20. We were able to pick from about 10 of them. That’s when it happened… I laid my eyes on the most beautiful addition to our yard that I ever did see. A 55 gallon orange barrel. I mean come on- if you are going to have to have something ugly (like a barrel) in your yard, why not at least pick a vibrant color that you love? Orange is my favorite color. I was sold.
After bringing this beautiful baby home, to my surprise the lid didn’t just pop off like I had imagined. It was completely welded on. I asked my super handy neighbor how he suggest I get the lid off and I was not surprised or disappointed to learn power tools would be involved! He directed me to get an angle grinder and 40 grit metal cut-off wheels. These items were easy to find at home depot and I was back home in no time ready to cut this sucker open!
I used the grinder to slowly cut through the metal across the top. And let me just explain a couple of “what not to do” scenarios that you may be seeing in the picture below. First- always wear closed toed shoes. I did get burnt a couple of times wearing flip flops but it didn’t bother me too much. I love flip flops way too much to compromise joy over safety. Don’t be like me. Second I am sure some kind of gloves are suggested as there are sparks flying EVERYWHERE during this process. However I was wearing glasses and an apron and that has to count for something. Third- Be very very very careful after cutting it. This metal is super sharp and you don’t know where it has been, so protect yourself from getting a nasty cut.
Ok so the challenge I had below was that my battery powered angle grinder apparently uses A LOT of battery quickly. I seriously changed that battery out maybe 6-7 times just to make it through the whole top of the barrel. So in that sense, although I love the battery powered power tools- I would have preferred one to plug in so I wouldn’t have to keep stopping.
After we got the lid off and cleaned out the inside, disposing of the leftover oil substance that was already in there (Be sure to follow the correct disposal process for hazardous material in your city.) We had one last task. The fire needs a good flow of oxygen to keep burning or you will simply snuff it out. So grab your largest drill bit- and make several large holes along the bottom of the barrel to allow air to flow through. I probably did about 30 holes total randomly around the bottom.
IT’S TIME FOR FIRE!!!
This little guy was in place and filled up with all kinds of brush and ready to start doing its first job! We lit it on fire.. and I am not sure how I didn’t expect this to happen, I guess I just didn’t really think about it but as it went up in flames we started to see a large black discoloration take over the side of the barrel, and slowly keep moving around the rest of it.
At this point I am thinking “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” as I watch the beautiful orange color of the barrel start turning this ugly black/rusted color. The other side of my brain is like “Duh- its PAINT! Of course when you light it on fire, the paint is going to melt off!” Sigh… one of those moments when you just get way too excited before using your whole brain to think about how your project is going to go. So in the end.. my beautiful orange yard ornament is now a burned up rustic {useful} barrel.
The barrel still works just as fine in its ugly attire. Puts on a mean fire and gives me tons of ash that I can use in my compost. Well worth it, but I am still sad it cannot be orange.
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