bonFIRE 2010

Every year we have a bonfire at our house.  This years was... shall we say... HUGE?  Combining our construction project, brother Dave's projects, and 2 friend's home improvement projects, that was a lot of 2x4 scraps.  And then there were all the trees that were limbed and/or cut down.  Seriously.  Huge.  Fire.

And this year, for the first time ever, the fire department got toned out for it!  Steve had actually called them ahead of time to let them know we'd be burning, but of course they still had to come out and confirm that it was a bonfire (NOT a structure fire as it had been reported), and that it was not going to burn down the neighborhood.  I took photographs which didn't turn out well, but still kind of show the flashing lights (See below).  Had to show that they were actually here you know.   Of course we didn't get the engine, just the command truck.  The nice thing was, we had forwarning since Steve had his pager on.  Another nice thing was that they arrived in about 5 minutes.  Not bad for a rural fire department!  I admit, I was slightly apprehensive/embarrassed at first until the firemen showed up and stayed and chatted for awhile and were laughing and talking away, enjoying the burn.  There were random cars that would stop on the road and just stare for like 5 minutes.  What can you do - they may have just been jealous to not get invited :)  Probably the biggest excitement Plain has seen in awhile.  No seriously. 

 Flashing lights on the command rig, oh yeah :)  Bonfire to the back left.

Was a good time had by all.  Being preggo I couldn't enjoy the keg of libations (aka Vitamin R, aka Rainier Beer) but I did enjoy talking to my friends and enjoying their company.  Stayed up WAY too late (like 11:30, whoa!).  Steve was up much later making sure that it burned alright with no flare ups.  And it did just fine.  He was back out there today piling the remnants into a smaller fire where it will likely smolder for the rest of the week.

Anyway.  Fun times.