Can this wood smoke nightmare get any worse? I don't think so. You can't get any worse than wood smoke every day.
2:30 AM: Light wood smoke and smoldering odor remains in the air. The air has been smoky for 8 hours now. No end is in sight.
4:00 AM: Faint smoky smoldering odor lingers. You don't want to breathe this stinky air in your bedroom while you are trying to sleep, believe me. Hopefully, the air will be clear enough in an hour or two to open the windows.
6:00 AM: Faint trace of smoldering wood smoke odor remains. At this time I left. It was faintly smoky up at Beam & Helen around this time. At about 6:30 AM I noticed faint to light wood smoke near Lake Blvd & Swan. Somebody over there likes to smoke up the air. I'm not sure who it is. This isn't the first time it's been smoky over there in the morning.
8:00 AM: Air is clear enough to open the windows. Finally! We can get some cool air into the house after having the windows closed for 13-1/2 hours.
6:56 PM: Noticed faint wood smoke in the air. I did not check before this. Wood smoke this early makes me suspect a frequent burner close to city council member Jan Walczak's house. You can smell his burning blocks away. I went out and confirmed my suspicions. The homeowner is burning again. He burns almost every day. He burned five out of the past seven days. He burned Aug 30th, Sept. 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th from what I saw. He may have burned more than that. He is also a frequent yard waste burner. What makes him most interesting is his line of work generates a lot of combustible waste I suspect he is burning at his home. His burning pattern is not typical of recreation fires. You see short bursts of smoke coming from his property followed by a lull of a couple of minutes followed by another burst of smoke. This can go on for an hour or more from what I've witnessed. This is not consistent with recreational bonfires. This is more what you would expect from burning waste. As of 8 PM he was still burning strong.
But when you've got the four city council members supporting daily burning, what can you do? Our city council sucks. I wish we could get them to resign and put some people on the council who actually care about the community. People who care about others wouldn't force them to breathe smoky air every day.
7:50 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.
8:40 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Very smoky outside. Horrible smoky air.
9:43 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.
I checked the visitor log today. More people researching real estate in North St. Paul, MN, are finding this blog. Anyone considering buying a house in this city should know what a nightmare it is. This wood smoke problem is city-wide. It is not confined to my area. There have been a few times this summer when I found wood smoke elsewhere when there was no wood smoke where we live. If a city allows burning all seven days a week, you will always find someone somewhere burning and smoking up the air.
11:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.
Midnight: Light wood smoke at this time.