Ain't your grandma's campfire

We decided to have our first bonfire the other night. There was a ton of stuff calling out to us...burn us !!! burn us!! Even a poor old christmas tree left from the previous owner. I mean...if we did not burn it, it could spontaneously combust and cause a huge forest fire no??
So we did our duty for the country...ha ha...get it?? Oh I'm funny.

Anyway....since it had just rained an hour earlier things were wet. We decided the best way to ensure a good spark was to pour a tiny ( and I mean ALOT!) bit of gasoline onto the pile of brush.

I think you can see where I'm going with this....

So here I am standing a few feet back from the fire pit. I had a can of Deep woods off in my left hand, and a little whiskey in the right standing beside the gas can lovingly reminding my hubby to stop drop and roll in case of trouble.

Adam lit the fire and as most good campers would do, he waited just a second to make sure it caught. For what seemed to me a split second and to Adam an hour, a tiny flame lit, and then a little more. All of a sudden the air kind of went still and the flames were sucked backwards. That is when we heard a kaboom!!!! as the entire pile went up in flames INCLUDING the fumes surrounding the fire pit.

I stood there with my jaw open as I fully expected my very handsome husband to come running towars me all up in flames. Pick up the gas can and run you say??? not when your heart has stopped!!

We gave ourselves a little once over to make sure we were indeed still alive, and gave our hearts a sec to start us again. As my husband ran to turn on the hose I found myself laughing in a kind of eerie way. Sort of like when you know you came just a little too close to death. That past, and I felt a little tear of relief roll down my cheek....and then I took a swig of whiskey.

These are the lessons learned that day...

1) Brush does not need all that much gasoline to burn.
2) Apparantly Diesel does not go kaboom and so use it instead
3) move gas can further from fire
4)Stand with hose in hand and not whiskey
5)Light fire...and run

After we calmed down and laughed a little bit...o.k and cried too...we had a wonderful time sitting around the fire. It was the first time in weeks we just sat and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. All three kids were in bed and we just inhaled the crispy air, and spend time together in our backyard. (With hose at the ready of course :)

Our couple of weeks here in the country have been extremily busy but I'm glad we are finding the time to have a little fun. Although I'm exhausted at this point my heart is happier than it has been...ever. I feel a sense of calm and peace here. Like we are HOME. All along we have felt led by the Lord to be here and so far we understand why :)