People burning stuff on their land during hazardous times remind me of this area in Portugal. I prefer to keep my fires inside my woodburner, even more as I am merely renting a house here ( that comes with a one hectare garden ) and I now enough about fire hazard and not enough about making my own outdoor fires to take this risk.
I am enjoying your diary, even more now I turned towards a somewhat similar, or at least off-grid, countryside lifestyle ( again ), as of recently.