Jagmandave,
I have a pile the size of a two story house.  And not everything is in the pile.  If we put everything in the pile it would like a three story house.   /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
I have burned some big piles when we did not have water on site.  I just waited until it was very wet , usually the winter time, and when there was no wind.  I think I pulled 3-6 burn permits for every actual fire I had.  If the conditions were not right then no burn.
I'm thinking we will have to bring in a big drum 
chipper to handle our pile.  I talked to a contractor who has the 
chipper one day.  I talked to him for about 15 minutes.  He was running the drum 
chipper and feeding it with two excavators.  They reduced the pile in half while I was standing there.  The pile he was working on was about the same size as what I have.  I figure he could drop the equipment, do the job and load up in one day.  He was iffy on the price, something like $2-3,000.  Expensive but it would be done in one day and I would have a heck of a pile of wood chips!  I just paid over $800 for 46 yards of wood chips which puts things in perspective.
Couple thousand dollars to clean up the mess in one day leaving me with a pile of wood chips would be a good deal.   Burning takes DAYS on the pile I have.... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Later,
Dan