The next time you are reading one of my blogs where I am ranting about something "stupid" that The Man did I want you to recall todays blog. It will put into perspective just what The Man has to put up with living with me.
I love living on this farm for the summer. The opportunity to be outside most of the time without sweating or freezing is ideal for someone like me who really enjoys the out of doors. As a kid I spent as much time as possible playing outside because I didn't want to be inside where my every move was under the scrutiny of my grand father and my mom. First thing in the morning I left the house on my bike or roller skates or just hung around out in the yard, (all 15 square feet of it) My parents loved the out of doors so we often found ourselves taking day trips to the country. Being outside was fun ! My favorite parts of being a Girl Scout for all those years were camping, hiking and anything else out side. As a parent we took our kids camping every summer and when we weren't camping we were at the beach in the summer or outside in the yard no matter what the season. And so you can understand why I enjoy Michigan so very much.
Life on this farm is a far cry from my childhood in NYC, my years of raising a family out on Long Island or even retirement in Florida. Here in Michigan we have wide open spaces and no neighbors right on top of us. The property stretches in all directions without seeing another house. The fields are bordered by woods on three sides so the animal like has plenty of area to roam. We have trash pickup twice a month so when we have lots of burnable trash we burn it ! Leftover foods are brought out back to the field where it can naturally compost or get eaten by the local wildlife. (Did I tell you the other day we saw a black bear walking across the field in back of the pond?). This is country living at its finest.
Because we burn a lot of our trash we have a fire pit between the house and the garage. I think The Man built it when he moved here so it is well constructed and very safe. I LOVE to burn stuff !!! Perhaps I was a pyromaniac in a past life or maybe I'm preparing myself for an eternity in Hell. What ever the reason I am always ready to volunteer to go outside and start a fire in the fire pit.
I have all the proper equipment required for this task. I bring the hose around from the back of the house "Just in case". . . garden gloves are a must so as to not get splinters from any wood that might get added to the fire and most importantly of all I have my favorite "Fire Poker Stick". (Everyone needs something to poke at the fire in order to keep it burning properly.) I found my fire poking stick last year as I walked up the driveway one afternoon. It had broken off a tree during the night and it was PERFECT !! The stick was completely smooth of branches and leaves. It was about 5 feet long and just thick enough around to fit nicely into the palm of my hand. (If I was a hiker it would have been the perfect walking stick.). But best of all the wood was still green enough that it would not burn when I used it to poke things around in the fire. It was a wonderful stick that lasted me all summer last year and most of the summer this year.
UNTIL . . . House guests arrived ! I knew these 2 adults and 2 young boys were coming and I knew I should "hid" my perfect fire stick. But life got in the way and I forgot. Our company was here a whole week of which the first 3 days were very windy so there was no bonfire to toast marshmallows. On the forth day I left The Man here with his guests so I could fly down to visit my son and wife in Atlanta. I came home 4 days later, the guests left and life slowly returned to "normal".
(While our guests were here two large branches broke off one of the apple trees out in the yard. Dwayne's son cut up the large, apple laden branches and piled it all up on the grass next to the fire pit. The wood was very green so we had to wait to burn it. I guess one of the nights the winds were calm and the guests had a bonfire with some of the dry wood from the woods around the house. I heard they did get to roast some marshmallows.)
Today I went out to burn a ton of paper that we have accumulated over the past week. (Amazing how much news paper and tissues can accumulate in a weeks time.). It has been very windy here all week so when I got up today and saw how calm and still the morning was I headed out side with 3 bags of paper. I lit the bags, piled on some dry wood and went to get my "fire poking stick" that I keep leaning up against the big Maple tree.
IT WAS GONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The horror !!! My stick was GONE !!!!! OMG !!!!!
I can not tell you how upset I was over this tragedy. I swear to you I was ready to smash something. I was PISSED !!!
Now . . . the fact that I am surrounded by woods on three sides of the property and can go get fifty two thousand "fire sticks" in about three seconds does not factor into the equation. I was pissed at myself for not putting the stupid stick "away". ( It is only a STICK for heaven sake!) I was pissed that anyone DARE to burn MY stick. ( Like anyone would know that a branch leaning against a tree trunk was MY stick ). I was pissed at The Man for having house guests. ( How dare he invite people into HIS home !)
Yes, basically I am crazy !!! It took me about 15 minutes to come to the realization that I was totally out of my mind to be upset about a stick but I also realized I had to write about it.
Aren't you glad I am just a little bit nuts ???
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