Fire and rain

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Friends,

The last weekend in April is reserved for the annual H family bonfire. Let's start with a little history: The English term bonfire is attested from the 15th century, as banefire "bone-fire", originally of fires in which the bones of slaughtered animals were burned, allegedly a Gaelic tradition of the slaughter season in autumn.
Nowadays, we merely warm our bones by the fire, but we burned two days in the process. Please join me as we look at some highlights from this double day extravaganza.

Greetings, y'all! Families started arriving by midday Friday. Parking spots were claimed and tents were pitched.

It didn't take long for the fun and games to begin. The big fire isn't lit until dusk and there is plenty to do before then.

Foosball tournaments went on and on and on.

Bubbles were a new addition to the event. Thanks Casey!

Josh retreats, not wanting to undo Casey's work.

Mr. R is pretty passionate about food; his emotions come pouring out at a time like this.

This is not the bonfire. This is one of the two campfires we light for the purpose of cooking hot dogs. S'mores will come later.

Hot dogs and warm knuckles, throw in a little smoke inhalation and you have the makings of a great day!

Hey Ben, what are you thinking about? He didn't use the welding helmet this year, he's mellowing with age.

Every family brought a side dish. Nobody went hungry.

Mrs. H's pink bottle. It goes everywhere with her.

POP QUIZ: Mrs. H and Ben are talking about:
A) How to achieve world peace.
B) How great the bonfire is going to be.
C) May 15, 2010

Let me explain the curious title of this post. On all the previous bonfires the concern has been that conditions would be too dry to light the fire out of the fear that we might burn down the rest of the county. This has been a very wet spring and it rained Thursday. This year we were concerned that the pile would be too wet to light!

The fire started out slowly, we worried that it was going to sputter out, but Neighbor Bob has a few tricks up his sleeve. It eventually got going.

Whoosh! A year's worth of prunings, four stumps and two whole pine trees went up in flames.
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By next morning the once mighty pile was small enough to serve as a foot stool. People stayed up very late the night before so the cool morning got off to a slow start. That gray and black shape on the right is the once mighty stump of the magnificent oak that graced our front yard. It did not burn much at all and will be the cornerstone of next year's bonfire.

Lots of rain guarantees that there will be plenty of muddy wet shoes.

Breakfast was served inside, as is the tradition.

The black powder gang took advantage of the shooting range. Mountains are pretty to look at, they stop bullets too.

Ben in motion increases the risk of bloodshed. These wounds were incurred on the hike.

Mr. O demonstrated his occupational skills by roping a Cow-asaki. Git along little doggy.

Friends held friends.

Friends held friends.

Friends held friends.

Some friends didn't want to be held.

This spring has been cool as well as wet. Not many people took advantage of the pool and nobody stayed in for very long.

Families wandered home as the day progressed. Mrs. H hugged everybody as they left.

No two bonfires have ever been the same, and this one was no different. The crowd was a little smaller than last year and we had to pull cars out of the mud, but everyone had a great time. We hope to see you at the next one, so mark your calendar.

NEXT STOP: Illinois!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned, there will be numerous posts in the next three weeks.

be safe,
Hec @ 19