Burn piles....to love or fear?

The burn pile begins….

We all made it safely to the other side…it's a bit warmer over here!

We came back the next night to roast marshmallows!

Ella likes to burn hers.

We finally got around to burning all the branches that were left from clearing a few trees we feared may fall on our house.  I did not know how entertaining this would be.  Kurt started burning it on a Saturday morning.  It is now Thursday evening and is still going!  All day Saturday the kids were out watching and throwing more sticks on it.  Sunday after church, they went right back to it.  We had a birthday party for Ella Sunday night, it was so hard to pull them away from their new toy.  Yes, I'm a horrible mom and let them "play" with the fire.  We did go over all sorts of fire safety….they were "working"!  I was still so nervous, I don't know how many times I said things like, "Do not walk around with that torch!" Or, "Stop!  You are going to burn someone's hair!"  We made it through.  No burns, no trips to the ER.  I do had to add that they were never left unattended with the fire.  I think my husband enjoyed playing with it almost as much as the kids.  I think that Papa liked it maybe too much too…he was driving the tractor grabbing more and more things to put on it!  We all reeked of smoke for days, with baths and showers nonstop!  So many memories were made and so much time spent as a family.  I guess I may have lost a few years from the stress…but it was worth it!

So now we have more work, a shed will hopefully be going in it's place.  Maybe I will finally be able to get some chickens…and goats if I can dream of no poison oak around here!  I'm sure we will really have some good stories then!