Family, gardening, Gatherings, home, Uncategorized

Fire!

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Years ago YA announced that her life would be considerably happier if we had a fire pit.  Having bonfires was a big deal in her peer group when she was in high school; if we had a fire pit, she could have friends over and life would be good.

I wasn’t particularly in favor of this, but we looked around.  Luckily this search got mentioned at my BFF’s house one night and she (my BFF) got all excited.  THEY had a fire pit that they didn’t use and had been thinking of getting rid of.  Did we want it?  YA wasn’t enthusiastic (as it wasn’t brand-spanking new) but she realized quickly that there was no way I was going to go out and spend a bunch of cash when something free was sitting right there.  So we hauled it home and she cleaned it up – voila!

Of course, the number of times it got used for her friends coming over amounted to just once.  I was pretty clear about no alcohol at our house and this was enough of a dis-incentive to her friends.  YA has never been a drinker but the crowd she ran with in high school apparently imbibed frequently (at least this is what she told me).  Our house was never a big hang-out house because of this and the backyard was just a continuation of that.

But now that we’re stuck at home, she has made it her mission to burn all the little sticks and old straw and small logs that have cluttered up the back of our yard for a while.  We’ve had a succession of fires now, always in the afternoon after we’ve done yardwork.  She does all the work – paper, kindling.  lighter.  Then she does all the fire maintenance as well, adding more sticks, blowing on it, poking it.  All I have to do is sit and enjoy.  I figure it’s going to take quite a few more bonfires to get everything cleared up and I’m looking forward to every one!

Anything you’ve started doing again in quarantine?

28 thoughts on “Fire!”

  1. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    Happy May Day all. And for the record, I have not resumed making May Baskets. But I have noticed that many neighbors are having bon fires at night in my neighborhood. I have been sewing like crazy to construct masks while I stay at home which reminds me of my youth when we sewed all our clothing. I am baking more, as well. Because the gyms are closed now, I have been walking in the neighborhood for exercise, waving at the neighbors and having socially distant conversations. One of my neighbors has been digging dandielions for a project. I told her that this would appear to be an endless project which will keep her busy for days and days.

    I have an online training this morning. See you all later.

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  2. Well, we have been cleaning and straightening up more. When husband was up at the rez I rarely made the bed every day or dusted. Now that he is home,he really likes it when I make the bed. He has never been able to make the bed the way I like, with all the edges even and straight, so I insist that I do it. He takes care of other things I dislike to to-dishes, for example. He also continues to bake, and made knackered on Tuesday night.

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  3. Can I start with a terminology quibble? The definition of quarantine is when a person with a known or suspected contagion or exposure to a person with a known or suspected contagion is ordered to stay in one specific location for a set period of time (14 days is the usual time span for COVID-19). Self-quarantine is when it is voluntary. If you are quarantined, you don’t go out except to seek medical treatment.

    I don’t know what I might do if I were quarantined, which I am not. I am sheltering in place, as are all the Baboons, as far as I know. I think the only person who contributes here regularly who has been asked to quarantine is Renee, when she had just returned from Minnesota. But I think Renee only had to stay away from work…is that right, Renee? So that wouldn’t be a true quarantine.

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      1. Even a quick glance was enough to give me a headache from eye strain. My hat’s off to you and Robin for doing this work. Not only do you have to decipher the handwriting, but it looks like some of the letters are barely legible due to the ink having faded, and/or the copy is poor quality. I hope the content is interesting.

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        1. For me the content is often fascinating. It feels like a privilege to be reading these original documents.

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        3. You have to understand, these are people and events I’ve been reading about for years, but to have them unfolding in the words of people who don’t know how they are going to turn out…
          First the letters were pre civil war and the letter writers had all sorts of speculations about what was going to happen with the South. The Fugitive Slave Law and the capture in Boston of escaped slave Anthony Burns, the attempt to free him from the courthouse by force and the use of the national guard to enforce his return to slavery. John Brown’s campaigns against slavery and the Missouri border ruffians in Kansas, then Brown’s raid on the U. S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, the aftermath with his trial and execution and the reaction to all that among abolitionists. Squabbles between different abolitionist factions, with William Lloyd Garrison representing the non-resistant faction, who insisted peaceful methods were the only legitimate and morally defensible means of ending slavery against the pro-war abolitionists, the supporters of John Brown and his assertion that the sin of slavery could only be cleansed with blood.
          Some of the letters are between the American abolitionists and their European counterparts and a great deal of the correspondence has to do with facets of organization and coordination.

          The antebellum letters have been completed and now we are working on ones written during the civil war. I transcribed a letter from a soldier in an army hospital in Pennsylvania the other day. He was writing about the battle where he was injured. While he didn’t say which battle, the date on the letter was July 13, 1863 and since he was in Pennsylvania, it’s likely he was a casualty of Gettysburg.

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        4. I had a letter yesterday written in 1866, after the war ended and the question of slavery was resolved., fro a U. S. Senator to William Lloyd Garrison begging him to recognize the Senator in the official record of the Anti Slavery Society as having been a staunch abolitionist. He ends the letter asking Garrison to destroy it after reading it so that other eyes may never read it…

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        5. That does sound like an interesting project. With the benefit of knowing how various historical events turned out, it must be fascinating to read how people in the middle of this struggle perceived the events unfolding around them. I have so many questions, but I’ll save them for another time and send them to you privately.

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  5. As I understand the letter my sister sent, her daughter (my niece) is quarantined. Mary, an ICU nurse, was struck by a delirious Covid-19 victim, and her protective gear might have been compromised. Mary was sent home for ten days. She reportedly welcomes this, as she is renovating her kitchen and now can concentrate on that project.

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  6. Last week I went for a walk along a route I used to walk regularly twenty or thirty years ago. I don’t know why I stopped walking there at some point, I just dropped the habit. Back then, there was a certain house I passed that had a chain link gate across the driveway, and they had a friendly dog, maybe a collie or sheltie mix, that was usually out in the fenced yard. If I walked up to the gate, the dog would come out to see me and dance around in circles in delight.

    These days there’s no dog in the yard, and very likely the house has changed hands over the years. But I always remember that dog.

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  7. You’ve already heard about my getting reacquainted with my sewing machine.It’s also been nice to spend more time with Husband – we’ve found several things we can do together, sometimes on zoom with people from our senior center, but also on our own – sometimes he’ll lead, sometimes I do.

    And I’ve been out in the garden way more than usual at this time of year.

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  8. You all know me, I couldn’t keep going without a list. I decided that I didn’t want to just sit on the sofa while I’m furloughed and so I decided there were a few things that I wanted to do and one of them was walk the dog every morning. She’s enjoying it of course and I’m enjoying seeing the spots where I used to walk when Rhiannon was younger and walkable.

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  9. All I did was a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. First one in way more than 10 years> Thinking about starting a second one, but golf season and yard work will probably put the kibosh on that idea.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  10. bonfires for us are a nighttime thing
    lit at 8 to carry on til dark
    my daughter informed my wife that when the smoke blows in your eyes white rabbit is the term to wish it away
    it works every time

    i am playing backyard guitar and taking baths with more frequency

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  11. finishing off binge watching netflix and amazon shows
    turner classic movies is my friend also pandora playing in the background

    i appreciate the extra month to get moved out of the warehouse

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  12. I’m doing more back yard birdwatching – or actually, listening. Yesterday I heard, twice, either a catbird or some kind of mockingbird, the one that repeats a dozen or two segments of different birds’ songs. I REALLY hope I can figure out what it is, so I have my binoculars out by the lawn chairs.

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