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Is it me, or is it warm out here?
Apr. 22nd, 2008 05:48 pmSo, after I burned down our backyard, I went inside to de-smokify and dry off. Fed the kids lunch, tucked them in for their naps (not an easy job) and got some good zzz's myself.
What's that? Oh, you'd like a little elaboration on that first point? Um, I burned down our back yard. Yup, silly me went out to rake up the humongous amount of leaves we've got back there and put them into burning piles. Now, I've been doing this for a while, but today one got going when along comes a strategically wafting gust of air and blew just enough cinders into another pile (not yet separated from the rest for burning) and poof!
Still, I think , 'Not too bad, I can handle that, just rake it into a separated pile before it gets too big', but the pile is wedged up against the back 8' tall, chain link fence and soon some leaves on the other side of the fence have caught. Ok, still not too bad because there aren't a whole lot of leaves back behind the fence there and nothing else to burn, so it's self-limited right? Nope.
Turns out there's just enough back there to spread the fire past the nice little isolated isle of leaves I have created to contain the first problem. Uh oh. Now it's spreading quickly across the back width of the property which hasn't been raked yet. And it's headed for the property line and the more-leafy-than-our-yard, wood-covered, vacant lot next door. Our hose doesn't reach far enough and running with buckets is only slowing it down a little. Drat. Time for 911.
After I have ensconced the children back in the house to avoid the smoke, the friendly local firefighters arrive and they quickly put it out. Now for what makes me feel like a real idiot? I'm friends with two firefighters, live right next door to the local fire chief and kitty-corner from an ex-volunteer firefighter. Luckily this happened a little after 1:30 in the afternoon, so none of them were home, but at least half of them read this blog, and the other two live on this street so they're likely to hear about it anyway, so I'd better get ready to catch some shit from them. Ah well, I always thought the back yard would look good in black. On the upside, I have a lot less raking to do now, and the trees didn't catch fire, so yay (I guess).
What's that? Oh, you'd like a little elaboration on that first point? Um, I burned down our back yard. Yup, silly me went out to rake up the humongous amount of leaves we've got back there and put them into burning piles. Now, I've been doing this for a while, but today one got going when along comes a strategically wafting gust of air and blew just enough cinders into another pile (not yet separated from the rest for burning) and poof!
Still, I think , 'Not too bad, I can handle that, just rake it into a separated pile before it gets too big', but the pile is wedged up against the back 8' tall, chain link fence and soon some leaves on the other side of the fence have caught. Ok, still not too bad because there aren't a whole lot of leaves back behind the fence there and nothing else to burn, so it's self-limited right? Nope.
Turns out there's just enough back there to spread the fire past the nice little isolated isle of leaves I have created to contain the first problem. Uh oh. Now it's spreading quickly across the back width of the property which hasn't been raked yet. And it's headed for the property line and the more-leafy-than-our-yard, wood-covered, vacant lot next door. Our hose doesn't reach far enough and running with buckets is only slowing it down a little. Drat. Time for 911.
After I have ensconced the children back in the house to avoid the smoke, the friendly local firefighters arrive and they quickly put it out. Now for what makes me feel like a real idiot? I'm friends with two firefighters, live right next door to the local fire chief and kitty-corner from an ex-volunteer firefighter. Luckily this happened a little after 1:30 in the afternoon, so none of them were home, but at least half of them read this blog, and the other two live on this street so they're likely to hear about it anyway, so I'd better get ready to catch some shit from them. Ah well, I always thought the back yard would look good in black. On the upside, I have a lot less raking to do now, and the trees didn't catch fire, so yay (I guess).
