Recreational Fires Must Be Eliminated

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WELCOME TO HELL ON EARTH

The air is smoky from burning wood in North St. Paul, MN, almost every evening. It is a nightmare. What used to be a nice place to live has become a living hell.

WARNING: If you buy a house in North St. Paul, MN, you will regret it! It may be the biggest, most expensive mistake you ever make. You will breathe smoky air almost every day of your life in this town. This is not an exaggeration. The wood smoke in this town gets heavy and gets heavy often. When you want to get out of this dump of a town, how many people do you think are going to want to buy a house in a city where heavy air pollution every night is normal and clean air is rare? This blog gets thousands of visitors every year. The word is out: North St. Paul is a horrible place to live!

Fresh air is very rare around here. If you are considering moving to North St. Paul or buying a home here, I strongly recommend that you do not do it no matter how good of a price you get. The only way you will be happy in this town is if you love breathing smoky air almost every day. North St. Paul, MN, is a horrible place to live because of the smoky air!

Burning wood, grass, leaves, paper, cardboard, and sometimes plastic, construction materials, and chemicals, if it is combustible it gets burned in North St. Paul and you are going to breathe it.

The air was smoky 25 out of 31 evenings in July 2009. We had 37 hours of continuous wood smoke in the air Aug. 29th - 31st. There was wood smoke in the air 19 consecutive evenings from Aug. 21st to Sept. 8th. It rained heavily on Aug. 20th, providing the only relief we got from wood smoke for almost three weeks.

Is this a good way to live? No. It is a horrible way to live. Take it from someone who knows. Breathing smoky, polluted air every day is misery.

Every day in this city several people are having recreational fires. Every evening the air is filled with the stench of burning wood. I am one person sick and tired of breathing smoky air every day. Is it too much to ask to be able to breathe fresh air in your own home?

Who is responsible for this wood smoke nightmare? The four city council members are responsible. Council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick have refused to do anything about this wood smoke problem. They don't care if you have a child with asthma. They don't care if you have to live like a shut-in because the air is so polluted. They don't care if your sinuses burn because the wood smoke is so heavy.

Our four Council members have defended the rights of a small percentage of households to burn wood daily over the rights of all the rest of us to breathe.

You have no right to breathe under Walczak, Bruton, Furlong, and Zick. Burners have the right to burn wood 49 hours a week recreationally. The rest of us have no rights at all.

If you are considering purchasing real estate in the city of North Saint Paul, Minnesota (55109), factor this blog carefully into your decision. Buying a home in this city means that your kids will breathe smoky air while playing in the yard almost every day. Your baby will breathe smoky air in her crib should you leave the windows open around your house. If you leave your windows open you will wake up in the middle of the night choking on smoky air.

Perhaps worst of all, your utility rates will be high because you will have to run the air conditioner instead of leaving the windows open on a cool summer evening. You have no other choice because almost every night the air is too smoky to breathe in this city. Consider this blog your warning.

North St. Paul, Minnesota, is a wonderful community other than the wood smoke. If we could restore fresh air like we used to enjoy, life would be happy again. But that is not going to happen any time soon.

Tell others about this blog!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Wednesday 09/29/2010 Air Pollution

More wood and leaf smoke this evening. Smoky, polluted air is a way of life in this town.

5:05 PM: Light smoke from burning leaves. Smoky air once again. 74 degrees, sunny, and beautiful except for the smoke pollution.

5:10 PM: Light wood smoke this time. I went out and found out who was burning. It is a frequent burner. The idiots on the city council give people the right to burn wood 7 days a week. That is why the air is always smoky! There are hundreds of homes around here and on any evening some of them will be burning.

6:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues. I hate this city.

6:40 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

8:30 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke now. The air has been smoky three hours already.

10:00 PM: The air is not fresh, but I can smell no wood smoke in it.

There was no more smoke for the rest of the night.

North St. Paul sucks!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tuesday 09/28/2010 Air Pollution

It is another smoky hell of an evening in the city of North St. Paul, MN. Living in this town is like living in hell. But hell has lower property taxes.

5:00 PM: No smoke.

6:15 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. I hate this city. It is a horrible place to live. 63 degrees, sunny, and beautiful except for the damn wood smoke! Close the windows up.

7:00 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh.

7:20 PM: Faint wood smoke. It is coming back.

7:45 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside! The air reeks of wood smoke. I can smell wood smoke coming in around one of the closed windows.

8:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues.

9:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues. 56 degrees measured at North High School.

If you are looking at real estate in North St. Paul, MN, pay close attention to this blog. This is how we, all of our neighbors, and people all over the city live. If you buy a house in this city you are going to breathe smoky air almost every day of your life. Living in this city is misery. You will curse the day you moved to North St. Paul.

10:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke at this time.

11:15 PM: No smoke. The air is clear. Last check of the evening.

Monday 09/27/2010 Air Pollution

You dread coming home when you live in this city. Smoky air from burning leaves and wood today.

4:50 PM: Faint smoke from burning leaves. I went out and found the likely burner. It is a frequent burner who burns wood and yard waste multiple times per week. There was a smoky haze around the house and the smell of burning leaves was concentrated in the area. 74 degrees, sunny, and beautiful except for the burning yard waste.

5:15 PM: Faint smoke from burning leaves continues.

5:40 PM: A very faint trace of leaf smoke lingers in the air.

5:50 PM: Faint smoke from burning wood at this time. It just gets better and better living in this town.

6:45 PM: No smoke in the air at this time.

There was no more smoke for the rest of the evening. Leaf burning should be done by the third week of November without any snow cover. We will enjoy smoke from burning leaves for another six or seven weeks. Do you want to live in a city like this?

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sunday 09/26/2010 Air Pollution

5:20 PM: No smoke. 63 degrees and sunny. I noticed no smoke from wood or burning yard waste today. Windows were open throughout the house most of the day.

6:35 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh at this time. There is something in it.

7:50 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. It is a strange smelling smoke.

8:30 PM: Faint to light strange smelling wood smoke continues. It has a chemical smell or something.

8:45 PM: Light strange smelling wood smoke at this time.

10:00 PM: No real smoke in the air. The air is not fresh. There is a very faint trace of something in it.

11:30 PM: No smoke.

Saturday 09/25/2010 Air Pollution

It was another miserable, smoky hell of a day in North Saint Paul, Minnesota. Wood smoke in the early afternoon followed by pretty heavy smoke from burning leaves followed by extremely heavy wood smoke. The wood smoke was so heavy tonight we could smell it coming in with all the windows closed. Today marked the first occurrence of smoke from burning leaves for the season. We can look forward to smoke from burning leaves a few times a week for almost two months.

Do you want to live in a city like this?

2:30 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. I did not record the temperature. It was about 60 degrees.

3:45 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke continues.

5:00 PM: No real smoke for the moment.

6:15 PM: Light to moderate leaf smoke. Somebody is illegally burning leaves. This is the first time I've smelled leaf smoke this fall. There will be plenty more. As strong as the smoke is, the burner cannot be far. I looked around outside and did not see any smoke. Sunny, 59 degrees at this time.

6:45 PM: Moderate smoke from burning leaves. The air is filled with leaf smoke. Smoke from burning yard waste does not usually get this strong. It could be more than one person burning leaves. One time I went out to look for yard waste smoke and found three homes within a quarter mile upwind burning yard waste at the same time.

7:37 PM: A very faint smoke from burning leaves continues. Soon the wood smoke will start. North St. Paul sucks!

7:55 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky from burning wood now.

8:30 PM: Strong wood smoke. The air is extremely smoky! This air is not fit for human consumption! Our city council should be criminally charged with torture for making us breathe air like this! The wood smoke is so heavy we can smell it coming in with all the windows closed. The air does not get this smoky often during the winter. Winter is the least smoky season in this town.

9:30 PM: Strong wood smoke continues. No fresh air anytime soon I'm afraid. I hate this city.

10:30 PM: Strong wood smoke continues. Last check of the evening.

Friday 09/24/2010 Air Pollution

Wood smoke returns.

5:20 PM: No smoke. 60 degrees, mostly cloudy at this time. It was sunny earlier.

7:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. Close the windows. When the temperature is in the upper 50s to low 60s, we normally keep a two or three windows around the house open slightly to provide fresh air. There will be no fresh air tonight.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time. It's pretty smoky outside. It is a normal evening in North St. Paul, MN. Probably from the use of a fireplace.

9:10 PM: Faint to light wood smoke continues.

10:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time.

11:45 PM: Faint wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Thursday 09/23/2010 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening due to weather. At 7 PM it was 72 degrees with rain drizzle. It was not a good night for recreational bonfires or yard waste burning and a little too warm for recreational fireplace use.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Wednesday 09/22/2010 Air Pollution

There was not a trace of wood smoke pollution this evening. The air was fresh all night long thanks to rain. The temperature at 6:15 PM was 61 degrees. There was a very a faint trace of some type of smoke in the air but it did not last long. It smelled a little like burning paper. By 7:15 PM a few drops of rain fell. After that time it started raining pretty good and was raining after midnight. This time of year we get smoke from recreational fireplace use. There was none tonight. You will not appreciate the importance of fresh air until you live in this town. It was so nice to step outside under the eaves and take a deep breath of fresh air. Most nights you cannot do that because the air is so smoky.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tuesday 09/21/2010 Air Pollution

4:07 PM: A very faint trace of smoke from burning grass is in the air. It went away quickly. Sunny, 71 degrees, a gorgeous day.

5:30 PM: Light grass smoke. Somebody somewhere is burning yard waste. I was in the bathroom getting cleaned up and the exhaust fan was sucking in smoky air. I hate this city! You buy a house in this town you will regret it! North St. Paul, MN, is a terrible place to live! 70 degrees and partly cloudy at this time.

5:45 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. How many f****** hours are we going to have to breathe smoky air tonight? I hate this city. Another beautiful evening ruined by smoky air! If it is not raining and not too hot or cool, somebody is burning something every night of the week!

6:30 PM: No smoke. The air is mostly clear at this time. I hope it stays that way. But that is not likely in this town.

7:00 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

8:15 PM: There is a very faint trace of some type of smoke in the air. I cannot tell what it is.

9:35 PM: No smoke. The air is mostly clear.

There was no more wood smoke for the rest of the night.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday 09/20/2010 Air Pollution

5:10 PM: No smoke. A cloudy, misty day gave way to a gorgeous, temperate late afternoon. 73 degrees, sunny, and breezy at this time.

6:00 PM: No smoke. I can see a smoky haze off in the distance. I do not know what is causing the haze as none of it is making it this direction. The haze is concentrated over a frequent burner's property.

7:15 PM: No smoke. 70 degrees at this time. It would be nice to make it through the night without smoky, polluted air. Being the town this is, that is not very likely.

8:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air!

9:50 PM: No smoke yet. Wonderful fresh air continues!

11:15 PM: Still no smoke. That fresh air is so nice. I stepped outside and took a deep breath. You cannot do that most nights in this town. This city would be a very nice place to live if not for the almost daily wood smoke pollution. The temperature has increased through the evening. It is 76 degrees at this time. Dare we go to bed with the windows open tonight?

There was not a trace of wood smoke this night. The air was fresh and clean all night long. A mild thunderstorm with marble-sized hail made its way through after 1 AM. We left the windows open, something we usually cannot do in this polluted nightmare of a city. The hail hitting the house and objects woke us up. It was loud.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sunday 09/19/2010 Air Pollution

Another day, more wood smoke in the air. The recreational burning started a early today. Probably a fireplace. There was wood smoke in the air by early afternoon.

4:20 AM: A very faint trace of wood smoke lingers in the air.

7:00 AM: Fresh air!

1:25 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke comes and goes. We have a couple windows open. They will need to be closed.

1:38 PM: Light wood smoke. It varies with the wind.

2:25 PM: Light wood smoke coming and going on the wind. 62 degrees and sunny. Does anyone need to use a fireplace when it is 62 degrees and sunny? Couldn't the burner cook some food and heat up their house?

3:00 PM: No smoke.

3:20 PM: No smoke.

4:45 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke at this time. 63 degrees and sunny.

5:50 PM: Light wood smoke.

6:15 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh but I cannot detect any smoke in it.

8:15 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air. Not much, just enough to smell it.

9:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke continues. 55 degrees at this time.

9:50 PM: No smoke.

10:50 PM: No smoke. Last check of the evening.

It was not very smoky this evening. We had some intermittent wood smoke in the early afternoon and some very faint wood smoke in the evening. There was no burning grass or leaves at all this weekend. Yards are full of leaves now. We will surely have some smoky air from burning leaves by this coming weekend.

Saturday 09/18/2010 Air Pollution

It was an extremely smoky evening. Very heavy wood smoke is common on the weekends and this Saturday night was not an exception. The wood smoke was so heavy we could smell it coming in with all the windows closed.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. There has been no wood or yard waste smoke all day. A few windows were open slightly around the house for ventilation. 59 degrees and sunny at this time.

7:30 PM: Still no wood smoke.

8:04 PM: No smoke.

8:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke is in the air. It will only get worse. It is a little cool for bonfires but I am sure there will be some recreational fireplace use tonight. Close the windows.

8:45 PM: Light wood smoke. The air pollution got stronger quickly. 55 degrees at this time.

9:35 PM: Moderately strong wood smoke. The air outside is very smoky! You don't want to breathe this polluted North St. Paul air. It smells terrible and is bad for your health!

10:00 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. The air is extremely smoky! With all the windows closed we can smell a little wood smoke coming in. Inside our own home we are breathing soot, ash, tar, and cancer-causing compounds found in wood smoke. These homes are not new. There are bound to be gaps and cracks where air infiltration can occur. Our home is being bathed in heavy air pollution and we are forced to breathe it without our consent!

10:53 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues.

11:20 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues.

When I woke for the first time around 4:20 AM there was a very faint trace of wood smoke lingering in the air. I look forward to winter when there is less wood smoke in the air. Winter is the least smoky season in North St. Paul, MN.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday 09/17/2010 Air Pollution

The temperature is cool enough for some recreational fireplace use tonight. I expect smoky air as usual.

4:50 PM: No smoke, the air is not fresh at this time. 63 degrees and cloudy.

5:25 PM: No smoke. Sunny at this time.

6:30 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh.

7:25 PM: The air is not fresh at this time but there is no detectable wood smoke in it. 64 degrees and mostly cloudy.

8:22 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air.

8:39 PM: Very faint wood smoke. The wood smoke is very weak but a little stronger than before.

8:57 PM: Faint wood smoke. The wood smoke is getting a little stronger.

9:37 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

10:15 PM: No smoke. The air is mostly clear at this time. The burning stopped or the breeze changed direction.

10:40 PM: No smoke.

11:35 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air at this time.

11:50 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke continues. Last check of the evening.

This evening was not too bad for wood smoke pollution. There was very little smoke in the air for a Friday night with a temperature in the upper 50s to low 60s. But as usual, there was wood smoke in the air. You are going to breathe smoky air every day of your life if you live around here. Every day. Does that sound good to you? Do you look for smoky air every day when you buy a house?

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Thursday 09/16/2010 Air Pollution

5:22 PM: Light to moderate wood and paper smoke at this time. The air reeks of burning wood and paper. I could smell it coming in the window. You dread coming home when you live in this city. 58 degrees and cloudy at this time. I feel it is going to be a smoky hell of an evening.

5:45 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke. The smoke from earlier had to have been from someone starting a fireplace or disposing of refuse. Or the breeze changed direction. 59 degrees measured at North High School.

6:15 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. It's smoky outside.

6:45 PM: Very faint wood smoke. 58 degrees.

8:00 PM: No smoke Fresh air.

The air was fresh and free of wood smoke for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday 09/15/2010 Air Pollution

There was not a trace of wood smoke this evening. The weather was the reason we were able to enjoy fresh air. It was cool and cloudy with a temperature of 66 degrees at 5:30 PM. By 7 PM heavy rain was falling. Light rain continued past 9 PM with drizzle continuing after.

The only time we get fresh air in this town is when it rains. Nobody can have a bonfire or burn yard waste during heavy rain. But there is always the chance somebody could start burning in a fireplace. Thankfully, there was none of that this night.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Tuesday 09/14/2010 Air Pollution

We got lucky tonight. We caught a break from the wood smoke. The air was not completely absent of wood smoke pollution, though. Compared to yesterday evening, it was the difference between heaven and hell.

4:15 PM: No wood smoke. 69 degrees, mostly cloudy with a little sun poking through.

5:45 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:10 PM: Very faint wood smoke is in the air now. It is detectable just enough to know it is present. It is not strong enough to require the closure of windows around the house.

9:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke continues. The burner is a great distance away or the wind is not bringing much of the smoke our direction.

9:45 PM: No wood smoke.

10:35 PM: No smoke.

11:00 PM: No smoke. Last check of the evening.

When I woke around 2:30 AM the air was fresh. There was not much wood smoke in the air tonight, but there was just enough to notice it.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Monday 09/13/2010 Air Pollution

1:45 PM: I was heading home early when I thought it would be nice to go by Silver Lake. It was a beautiful, windy afternoon with a temperature of about 70 degrees. As I neared the intersection of 19th Ave. & Margaret St., I smelled wood smoke. I was a little surprised to smell wood smoke this early. As I headed west on 19th, I found the source. The household right next door to the home that was torn down (and is now a hole in the ground) was burning wood in their back yard. It was windy at this time. A small cloud of smoke was blowing west. I was tempted to go back into the alley to see if they were having a bonfire or burning yard waste, but I did not.

Every day in this town people are smoking up the air. Ten years ago, it was not like this. This city was a nice place to live.

4:35 PM: No smoke. 73 degrees, sunny, very nice.

5:00 PM: A little smoke that smelled like wood smoke for a minute, then it was gone.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke. The air is not fresh at this time. But we will gladly take it over the smoky air we normally have to breathe.

8:00 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine what it is.

8:10 PM: STRONG WOOD SMOKE! IT IS SMOKY AS HELL! We went from a very faint trace of something in the air to extremely heavy wood smoke in ten minutes! NORTH SAINT PAUL SUCKS! Horrible place to live! 64 degrees. Is this a bonfire or recreational fireplace use? We had our windows open and would have left them open if not for the wood smoke pollution! Now we must close the windows and live like prisoners!

8:40 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. It smells like someone may be burning brush.

9:10 PM: Moderate very stinky wood smoke now.

9:22 PM: Light wood smoke. The air is clearing. Every night the air is smoky. This is hell. 61 degrees at this time.

9:50 PM: Moderate, very smoky air continues.

10:30 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

10:49 PM: Light wood smoke. The intensity is increasing again.

11:18 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Very smoky air is back!

Midnight: Moderately strong wood smoke continues.

This is how you are going to live if you purchase real estate in North St. Paul, MN. It is not just our area that has smoky air often. It is a citywide problem.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Sunday 09/12/2010 Air Pollution

2:45 AM: Moderate wood smoke. Very smoky air continues. No chance of opening the windows until dawn or later. Back to bed.

4:30 AM: Light smoldering wood smoke continues. The air reeks! The air smells terrible. You do not want this stinky air in your house unless you live in a garbage house pigsty with rotting food and pet droppings all over the floor that smells worse than smoldering stinky wood smoke. If you live in a garbage house, the poor air quality in North St. Paul may be an improvement to your indoor air quality. Not for the rest of us. Back to bed.

7:15 AM: A very faint smoldering smokiness continues in the air. It is not enough to discourage us from opening the windows. Finally, we can start living like human beings again! Until the wood smoke starts again later this evening, that is. If we are lucky, we will get ten to twelve hours of mostly fresh air -- with the exception of burning yard waste -- before the air pollution starts again.

Do you want to live in a city like this? Can you imagine breathing smoky air almost every day of your life, all year around, with winter being the least smoky season? Do you want to raise children in air pollution so heavy it infiltrates your home even when you have all your windows closed? That's how you will live your life in North St. Paul, MN, thanks to the idiots on the city council who make us breathe this filthy polluted air.

It is a beautiful Sunday. The temperature at noon is 72 degrees and it is sunny. That means people will probably be burning yard waste this afternoon and more wood smoke this evening. If it isn't raining and the temperature isn't too hot or too cold, people will be burning yard waste and wood most days.

4:20 PM: No wood or grass smoke yet. It is gorgeous outside. Sunny, 79 degrees, and breezy. We will sit outside this evening for a while until the wood smoke starts. We try to enjoy the little fresh air we get around here.

5:30 PM: No wood smoke. Some faint grill smoke is in the air. No complaints about that.

6:20 PM: A very faint wood smoke is in the air at this time. It's already starting.

6:28 PM: Very faint to faint odor of burning paper coming in the windows. Someone may be using paper to start a wood fire or possibly a charcoal grill. If it gets any stronger, we'll have to close everything up. We'll probably have to do that soon anyway. 77 degrees and beautiful except for the little bit of wood and paper smoke in the air.

6:45 PM: A very faint smoke of some type is in the air. I can't tell what it is. A smoke-free evening would be nice. Not much chance of that happening.

7:30 PM: No smoke. The air is mostly clear.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

8:30 PM: No smoke where we live. But I did find some wood smoke when I went out looking for it. It was faintly to lightly smoky at the intersection of Helen St. & Poplar Ave. The smoke extended from the cemetery south to almost Navajo Rd. On the other side of the block it was faintly smoky along Lake Blvd. from Swan Ave. up to Poplar with very faint to faint wood smoke along the southern edge of Silver Lake at 19th Ave. & Lake. I never have a problem finding smoky air in this town. Somebody somewhere is always burning. If it isn't raining and isn't too hot or cold, somebody will be burning wood. I do not know if the smoke was produced by a bonfire or recreational fireplace use. I could not find the source of the wood smoke. The temperature at the time was in the low 70s. There is no need to use a fireplace for home heating. But in this town, if it isn't nailed down and is combustible, people burn it.

9:00 PM: No smoke where we live.

9:20 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke. Now it is getting smoky. Every night the air is smoky in this nightmare city! There is no breeze at this time. The smoky air is not making it inside.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke outside. Now it is time to close the windows. This is our evening ritual. The air gets smoky so we have to close up the house. Instead of enjoying the pleasant air, we are forced to live as prisoners in our own home.

10:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time.

11:00 PM: The air is mostly clear.

I never imagined we would be living like this.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Saturday 09/11/2010 Air Pollution

It is a beautiful early fall day. As is typical in this city, there is some burning of yard waste. It was one hell of a smoky night. If you don't love wood smoke so heavy it makes you sick, you will not like living in North St. Paul.

3:23 PM: Faint to light grass smoke coming in the windows. Somebody is burning grass clippings. Why not? People burn so much wood in this nightmare city, you might as well burn whatever you can get your hands on. Burning encourages more burning. One person has a smoky bonfire, the next day a neighbor burns yard waste. The next evening someone else burns wood. That's why this city is as polluted as it is. The grass smoke did not last more than a few minutes, thankfully. It is windy at this time.

4:55 PM: Very faint grass and wood smoke coming in the windows. Breezy at this time. The burner is not near us.

5:15 PM: Very faint to faint wood smoke in the air. I wonder if someone may be grilling with wood. There is no cooking odor in the smoke. Someone could be burning tree branches. There is a lot of that in this city, too. 71 degrees, breezy, and beautiful except for the wood smoke in the air.

I expect this evening to be an incredibly smoky hell. In other words, it will be a normal evening in North St. Paul. Do you want to live in a city like this?

5:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. It smells like wood smoke in the house now like it would if somebody smoked a cigarette inside. Time to close up the windows for the night and hope the air is clear by morning. North St. Paul sucks! If we wanted smoky air inside the house we would buy some cigarettes and smoke them inside!

6:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke continues in this horrible city. The air stinks. What a nightmare. The smoke is not from the grilling of food. Somebody in the distance is burning wood and letting it smolder. We encountered an area of wood smoke earlier when we were out shopping. I do not think that the smoke is from the same source. It isn't just our area that is smoky. It is smoky in many spots of the city regularly.

7:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke continues. Two hours of smoky air already and we haven't even reached nightfall. It is going to be a long smoky hell of a night. No bonfires on Friday means there will be a lot of pent up pyromania tonight. The weather is beautiful. It would be a nice evening to sit outside if the air wasn't smoky! 70 degrees and sunny at this time.

7:15 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. It's getting smokier! Thanks a lot, city council. I first complained about the wood smoke TWO AND A HALF F****** YEARS AGO AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE ABOUT IT!

7:50 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's getting smokier outside.

8:45 PM: Moderately strong wood smoke. It is very smoky outside. You cannot smell anything other than wood smoke. You do not want to be outside in air this smoky. Breathing the air is uncomfortable and your clothes will reek of smoke.

9:40 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues. The air continues to be very smoky.

10:30 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. It is extremely smoky outside! To give you an idea of how heavy the wood smoke is, we can smell wood smoke coming in around the windows. Even with all the windows closed up tight, air smoke infiltration is occurring. You cannot stop the air pollution from entering your home.

11:00 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. We are going to bed and dream of a city that is not controlled by idiots who make people breathe heavy air pollution!

Heavy wood smoke continued well after midnight.

North St. Paul, MN, is the shittiest, worst place to live in the world! Never in my life would I have imagined air pollution so heavy as it is in this town. I look forward to winter when there is less wood smoke in the air! Spring, summer, and fall are much smokier than winter in this city. You would think winter would be the smokiest. But it is the least smoky season around here. And the colder it gets, the less wood smoke there is in the air. That's how screwed up this city is.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Friday 09/10/2010 Air Pollution

It is Friday. The temperature this evening will be in the 60s with a low in the mid 50s. This means we have the potential for both bonfire and recreational fireplace smoke pollution if the rain holds off. Possible rain and a thunderstorm are in the forecast for this evening which could be our saving grace. I am expecting a smoky hell of an evening typical for a Friday in North St. Paul. In a couple of weeks we get to breathe smoke from burning leaves. Aren't we lucky to live in a city like this?

4:05 PM: No smoke. Fresh air for the time being. 71 degrees measured at North High School, cloudy skies.

4:44 PM: Faint grass or wood smoke for a minute. Then it was gone.

6:16 PM: Light grass smoke. Somebody is burning yard waste. I can smell it coming in the windows. I cannot tell the direction it is coming from. At the end of the week, don't you want to come home and breathe smoke from burning grass? This is life in North St. Paul. If people aren't burning wood in this nightmare city, they are burning grass or leaves or paper or other types of waste.

6:30 PM: Very faint grass smoke continues.

6:51 PM: Fresh air. A few tiny drops of rain drizzle are falling at this time.

7:15 PM: Fresh air continues. For a while. A few little droplets of drizzle are falling at this time. 67 degrees.

8:00 PM: Fresh air continues. Light rain falling at this time.

9:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air continues.

10:00 PM: Fresh air.

11:00 PM: No smoke. Only wonderful fresh air!

Other than some burning grass smoke earlier, this was a very good -- and rare -- evening of fresh air. Even with the rain I expected some recreational fireplace use. But there was none. Before I went to bed I stepped outside and took several deep breaths of the fresh, cool air. On a normal Friday, this is not something anyone around here could do because the air would be filled with wood smoke. We were blessed tonight. Mother nature gave us the fresh, unpolluted air our city council will not.

Thursday 09/09/2010 Air Pollution

There was more wood smoke in the air this evening. Smoky air is what you can expect almost every day of your life if you buy a house in North St. Paul, MN.

4:30 PM: No smoke of any kind in the air. Fresh air, for however long it lasts. 69 degrees, mostly cloudy.

6:20 PM: No wood smoke. Cloudy. A brief rain shower is in the forecast for the St. Paul - Minneapolis area. It never rained.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: Light wood smoke. There it is. As always, the air is smoky in North St. Paul. I hate this ******* city! If you had to breathe smoky air every day, you, too, would hate your city. Horrible stupid nightmare of a hell city. Close the windows.

9:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke is in the air. Off to bed.

11:00 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke remains in the air.

North St Paul sucks!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Wednesday 09/08/2010 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: Faint to light grass and wood smoke. Somebody is burning yard waste. The smoke did not last more than a few minutes. 68 degrees.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

7:00 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: No smoke.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

11:00 PM: No smoke. Last check of the evening.

A little smoke from yard waste and a little from burning wood. This is about as good as it gets in this town.

Tuesday 09/07/2010 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No smoke. Cloudy, 64 degrees.

6:30 PM: No smoke. Cloudy, 62 degrees.

7:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

There was no more wood smoke for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Monday 09/06/2010 Air Pollution

Happy Labor Day! Some in this city are making the most of their day off by burning grass and brush. I can think of some better ways to spend the holiday than by burning yard waste. Some people around here cannot.

2:15 AM: A very faint smokiness from last night's burning continues.

5:00 AM: Fresh air!

9:49 AM: Light grass smoke. Somebody is burning yard waste. The burner cannot be too far away if the smoke is this strong. Nobody around us is burning at the time. The grass smoke did not last more than a few minutes.

10:20 AM: Faint grass smoke. Maybe somebody else is joining in on the yard waste burning. If it is the same burner as the earlier one, I wish he would burn all his grass clippings at once so we can enjoy some fresh air for a while. This grass smoke did not last more than a few minutes.

12:28 PM: Light wood smoke. I went out and found two households burning tree branches, one of which was a few houses south of city council member Jan Walczak's house. I think that one was burning grass along with brush. So on this holiday we have grass burners and brush burners. What a great way to enjoy the day off.

1:05 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke remains in the air. The brush burners may still be burning.

1:15 PM: Very faint wood smoke continues.

1:30 PM: No smoke, fresh air. Light rain drizzle around this time. Cloudy, 69 degrees.

5:00 PM: No smoke. Dark, cloudy skies. A storm is moving in which will hopefully put a damper on further wood burning and allow us some fresh air this evening. But somebody could start a fireplace and smoke up the air. We cannot win in North St. Paul. The air polluters always win in this town.

5:10 PM: A very faint smokiness of some type is in the air. I'm not sure what it is.

6:00 PM: No smoke.

6:55 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

8:00 PM: No smoke. Between the last check and this time it rained. A mild thunderstorm passed through.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke. Off to bed.

When I woke shortly after midnight the air was fresh.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Sunday 09/05/2010 Air Pollution

12:15 AM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. The air continues to be extremely smoky. The air reeks. There is no chance of opening a window for a little fresh air. There is no chance of stepping outside for a breath of fresh air because there is none!

2:10 AM: Moderately strong wood smoke continues. Very smoky air all night long

4:00 AM: Moderate wood smoke continues. How long is this going to last? The air has been smoky for most of the past nine hours. I turned on the TV to get the temperature before heading back to bed. 51 degrees at this time in St. Paul.

6:00 AM: Faint wood smoke continues. It is a smoky, smoldering smell. The air reeks! You do not want this stinky air in your home. Cigarette smoke is less offensive than this.

6:45 AM: Very faint smoldering wood smoke continues.

7:00 AM: A very faint trace of smoke remains in the air. The air is mostly clear at this time. Thank God! The nightmare is ending. If we are lucky, we will get ten to twelve hours of fresh air before the wood smoke starts again.

Do you want to live in a city like this? This is how we live our lives more often than not. It is a nightmare.

12:44 PM: Faint to light grass smoke. Somebody is burning yard waste. I could smell the smoke coming in through the windows as I was reading the paper. The smoke did not last too long.

1:13 PM: Faint grass smoke coming in the windows on the breeze. It did not last long.

2:15 PM: Very faint wood smoke at this time. Somebody somewhere is burning wood. The smoke did not last more than a couple of minutes. The burning stopped or the breeze shifted direction. Often in North St. Paul people will burn wood then throw their grass clippings on top of it. They use the legal wood smoke pollution to hide their illegal grass burning. Or they could be burning brush.

It was another smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul, MN. When isn't the air smoky? If it rains or is hot during the evening hours we might not have wood smoke. Otherwise, the air is smoky every evening in this nightmare town.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke. 70 degrees.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. Close the windows.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

10:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky at this time. Horrible smoky air. Do you want to breathe smoky air every day of your life? North St. Paul sucks!

10:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's still good and smoky outside. Off to bed.

11:50 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

When I got up again around 2:15 AM there was a very faint smokiness lingering in the air. Do you want to live in a city like this? Do you want to be a prisoner in your own home?

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saturday 09/04/2010 Air Pollution

12:45 AM: Light wood smoke continues. The air has been smoky for the better part of seven hours already. Back to bed. 54 degrees.

2:15 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke. The air is pretty smoky. It is smokier than it was the last time I checked the air. This smoke must be from the recreational use of a fireplace. It is not that cold outside. Nobody needs to use a fireplace for home heating when it is 50 degrees outside and will climb into the upper 60s to 70 later in the day. This makes about nine hours of smoky air tonight.

6:30 AM: Fresh air! Thank God! We can crack a window to get some fresh air in here. It is a very fall-like 48 degrees at this time. Savor the fresh air. It will not last long. If we get 12 hours of fresh air today we will be very lucky.

It was an extremely smoky evening. The wood smoke lasted all night and well into Sunday morning.

4:30 PM: Very faint smoke of some type is in the air. I cannot tell what is being burned. It is not from the grilling of food. It comes and goes with the breeze. 67 degrees. A few windows are open slightly to provide fresh air.

6:35 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky. As is normal in this town.

7:00 PM: Strong wood smoke. The air is extremely smoky right now. We are prisoners in our own home once again in this nightmare city.

7:30 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

7:55 PM: The wood smoke is mostly gone. The only thing in the air is the smell of food being grilled.

8:25 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. It is going to be a long, smoky hell of a night.

8:55 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky again.

9:30 PM: Strong wood smoke. This wood smoke is extremely heavy! This is inhumane!

10:00 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. How many more hours is this air pollution going to last?

10:30 PM: Strong wood smoke. The wood smoke is so strong you cannot stand to breathe the air. Breathing the outdoor air for a few minutes will likely make your sinuses burn. Stepping outside for a few seconds will leave your clothes reeking of wood smoke. We are prisoners. 59 degrees at this time. Off to bed.

The air was smoky all night long. There was still wood smoke in the air at 6 AM the following morning.

Friday 09/03/2010 Air Pollution

It was another smoky night in North St. Paul. This time of year we still have recreational bonfires and we also get recreational fireplace use, too. In a few weeks, the burning of leaves will be happening along with the burning of grass clippings. North St. Paul is a nightmare. A smoky, polluted, hell on earth nightmare. How I long for the days of the late 1990s when there was no wood smoke in the air!

5:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time. Somebody somewhere is burning wood. We still have our windows open for fresh air, what little there is of it around here. Close the windows! I hate this city. We used to like this town but have grown to hate it because of the smoky air. 61 degrees.

6:30 PM: Light wood smoke continues. It is going to be a long, smoky night(mare).

7:00 PM: A very faint smokiness lingers in the air.

7:30 PM: Light wood smoke. 60 degrees.

9:00 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke lingers in the air.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues. Off to bed.

The air was smoky well after midnight. Smoky air all night long is nothing out of the ordinary for this town. If you do not like breathing smoky air every day of your life, you will be miserable in North St. Paul, MN.

Thursday 09/02/2010 Air Pollution

There was not much smoke in the air this evening. But there was some. It rained a little which may have discouraged further recreational air pollution.

4:45 PM: A faint wood smoke is in the air at this time. 68 degrees. It was hot and humid earlier in the week and we seem to have been thrown into fall abruptly.

6:25 PM: Heavy rain with hail at this time.

There was no more smoke in the air for the duration of the night. 62 degrees at 10 PM.

Wednesday 09/01/2010 Air Pollution

7:20 PM: No smoke yet. The air is not fresh but I cannot tell what is in it. 73 degrees and sunny.

9:00 PM: A very faint smokiness of some kind is in the air. It is not strong enough to determine what it is.

10:00 PM: A very faint smokiness continues in the air. 67 degrees at this time.

10:29 PM: A faint wood and what smells like grass smoke is in the air. Somebody somewhere is burning wood and possibly grass clippings with it. It did not get strong enough to close the windows but I could smell it over by the window. It did not last too long.

11:00 PM: A very faint smoky smokiness continues. Last check of the evening.

There was not much smoke in the air this evening. But there was enough to notice it.