Remember just because its cold out doesn’t mean that its safe to burn open piles of debris. Where I live I noticed our first burn warning for the Fall Season as Humidity is 30%-40% with winds in the 25mph gusts to over 35mph.
Everything is very dry and an uncut field can burn extremely fast in such a situation and they can take the fire to the tree line very quickly.
If you are going to burn a pile of sticks then wait until you have a day of light rain first.. you can pile up your wood and get it ready.. trim the grass and remove debris from around the area for at least 50 feet. Use a hose to wet down the area and keep it ready in case you have problems.
However if it is windy those hot ashes will fly through the air and it only takes a single spark to set things out of control.
Keep Your Branches For Burning In Your Fireplace Or Wood Stove
A better thing to do might be to keep your branches for kindling instead of spending hours all winter chopping kindling you just throw some sticks in to get the fire started.. saves you wood and effort.. Don’t shy away from 1-3″ branches for regular firewood they burn just fine. Yes you have to add more and more often but they will burn and again thats less waste and more fuel you aren’t paying for or spending time getting.
The rest of the debris can be burnt in a burn barrel or just piled and allowed to break down over time.
Another option is to wait until the first snow. That is a pretty good option but you will lose the ability to keep a water hose ready if it is too cold out and it freezes.
Whatever you do don’t feel you’re in a rush .. think first.. plan and do things right.
Final Note
Just because you are use to doing something or see others doing it doesn’t mean its the best thing to be doing. I have seen a lot of people have problems on their homesteads and properties because they don’t take general precautions. People that are dangerous when climbing ladders, end up in the emergency room because they wouldn’t put on a pair of safety glasses and now they have something in their eye. All kinds of stupid things that should have been prevented if they weren’t trying to be tough or just took normal precautions.
Worse than that is I often see so called professionals that have the same problems.
There is really no excuse to be lazy about safety because doing things the right way is often easier in the end.