Did YOU do Anything Exciting this Weekend?????

I went to Jeff's last ball games on Saturday and then home to clean out the garage a little bit (we are still moving in). Nothing terribly exciting. Although Jeff's last game was pretty exciting. They lost on a last second shot that hung on the rim forever before falling through the net. Other than that, the kids went to their mom's house, Tandy took Elizabeth over to a friend's birthday party for the afternoon, and I just hung out at home and burned some of the trash that we had in the garage. Some old boxes that weren't any good anymore.

It was a nice afternoon, kind of cool with a slight breeze.

A little dry.

Excellent conditions for burning stuff.

Grass for instance.

Most of the back pasture in fact. Even with only a slight breeze grass fires are much faster than, oh I don't know, let's say a 40 year-old man running 250' of garden hose from the house to the fire one hose at a time. (Get a hose, hook it up, run back and get the next hose, run it out, hook it up, repeat, repeat, repeat) It takes water a little time to run out of a long hose like that and it doesn't have a lot of pressure either. It doesn't, for instance, fill up a 5 gallon bucket very fast at all. Which is not helpful when the fire has already extended beyond the hoses reach. In fact, this is about the time I would recommend giving up and hollering for help.

If your neighbor happens to be named Charlie or, Darrell (his son), you could yell CHARLIE!!! DARRELL!!!! or something along those lines and if you are very lucky one of them (Darrell) will stick his head out of the garage and holler back, "HEY WHAT'S GOING ON NEIGHBOR?" immediately followed by "I'LL GET MY HOSE AND WORK IT FROM THIS SIDE!!!, YOU CALL THE FIRE DEPT YET?"

I hadn't but they did and help soon arrived. A couple driving by stopped in and started helping us fight it, the county sheriff stopped by, and then 2 trucks from the Deer Creek Fire Dept. It didn't take them long to cruise around my pasture and Charlie's pasture a few times and get it all put out. They managed to get to the cedar trees before they took off in flame. And they managed to save the boat that belongs to the neighbor behind Charlie's place.

So when they arrived I finally got a chance to breathe something besides smoke and catch my breath a little. Charlie was out on his golf cart watching the goings on as he would say. I climbed over the fence and said, "Well Charlie, I decided you needed a little excitement today." He just laughed and said that "It just evens things up." They had started a brush pile fire a few years ago that got away from them and came into our yard he reminded me. "It's a shame," he said, "that it didn't go the other direction and clean up that eyesore over yonder (my neighbor to the north)." I think I'll leave that for another day........

All in all the better part of 3 or 4 acres was burned off Saturday. I guess you might consider that exciting. As Charlie said, it's a good thing we both keep those pastures mowed down good. It could have been much, much worse. He also noted that, especially if we get a little moisture, that in a few days it will be green all over. I said, "Unfortunately, my wife will be home before that happens." If you click on the pictures you will get a look in much greater detail.

I likes me some occasional irony, it keeps life light-hearted and fresh. Notice how the grass fire went all the way around my burn pile with touching it? Classic irony..............it's a beautiful thing.