First burning

This! Is! Sparta! (Just noticed this is my 300th post)
Last weekend weather was expected to be cloudy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon so I thought it was suitable for trying the burn barrel. Headed over to the woods and found this cute mushroom had made a home on my bamboo pile.

Almost felt sorry to stack more bamboos on top of it

Most of the bamboo was still damp from the constant rain a couple days before so I had brought with me some paper to start off the fire. But it didn't want to take... I ended up burning all the paper but not even the tiny bamboo branches had caught any sustainable fire. After maybe 10 minutes of trying all that without results I happened to glance at the bamboo stack on the north which just as designed had kept itself mostly dry.
Picked a bit of dry bamboo from there which easily caught fire with just my lighter, and used that to start the fire in barrel, removing the dampness of the remaining bamboo...

..and after that the fire was almost perfect

Of course every time I threw a new bit of bamboo in, being all damp, the fire got smokey for a few seconds, but after that it went back to almost no smoke, so the few air holes in only the bottom of the barrel were enough I guess. After maybe an hour of burning, I noticed that the clouds started to disperse, and the sun came out. Later it turned out to not become a rainy day at all. I kept hoping that the clouds would gather so none of the nearby homes would think about hanging out their laundry and get angry at my fire. At times when it got smokey and the wind went the wrong direction I felt kinda bad... but I suppose they are used to it especially with all the farms and farmers around that area, who burn everything. At least I don't burn plastic or garbage. Just wood. I figure if they chose to live there they must have understood what it means, and have a bit of tolerance. I won't be burning everyday neither...

The barrel doing a real good job

Anyway, after 2,5 hours I called it a day. At least for a first session it should be enough. I had burned more bamboo than I expected too. Plus I wanted to know how much "after work" would be needed, i.e. putting out the fire, emptying the barrel and cleaning it, and letting it get cold so I could cover it again with tarp.

After burn

I poured water to extinguish the flames and also bring down the temperature of the barrel itself so I could grab it. That took only about 12 liters of water. After that I dumped the ashes and coal in a pile nearby and poured maybe another 12 liters on that so it stopped steaming. Then wiped the bottom part and the barrel's inside with towel, so it wouldn't start rusting right away, and let all of that cool down and the remaining water evaporate. All that took maybe 30 minutes tops.

Inside of the barrel after I wiped it 

and after that it was time to wrap up and go home. Nice.

I also put a plastic lid on top of the barrel under the tarp