oops

Himself decreed that all the branches and small limbs that have piled up down by the river needed to be burned today. Considering that they came from a maple tree that was 30 - 40 feet high, there were a LOT of branches and leaves.

On a still day this project would have worked out very nicely. Today, though, we have gusty northwest winds blowing down the river and up over the bank at the pile of stuff. That, combined with the total inexpierenc3e of the two adolescents, caused a few minutes of near-panic.

Himself had been down at the pile, supervising them, but a family friend stopped over so he came back up to sit on the deck and visit. Evidently, with no supervision, the guys decided to start throwing larger stuff on the little pile that was burning. The inevitable happened....

the whole thing turned into a huge conflagration. The dry leaves ignited, black smoke began blocking out the sky and flames shot 20 feet into the air.

Our visitor jumped up, yelled, "HOLY SHIT!!!" impelling Himself to also jump up and look. (in the interests of delicacy, i won't repeat the next thing out of his mouth.) The kids realized this was not a good thing and had panicked, running up the yard towards the house.

Himself took the deck stairs 3 at a time, grabbed the hose and ran down to start spraying the fire. By this time, ash was falling around the house in a manner reminiscent of the last days of Pompeii. Flames continue to roar, mounting higher and higher into an overhanging oak tree. Heavy black smoke overspread the neighborhood, mounting into the sky, carrying ash with it. Himself continued moving around the flames, spraying at their base with the hose while the visitor and I wondered if we shouldn't be calling the fire department.

After a tense period of time, Himself got the base of the fire under control and started pulling branches from the top of it.

It's still burning, but it's a small flame and under control. The actual wood is burning now, not flaring as the tinder-dry leaves did. I surmise that Himself isn't leaving that area until the whole thing is out.

We are very fortunate that nothing worse happened. The oak didn't start on fire, the decks and house are fine since by the time the ash got here it was dead. There is a mess of ash all over everything but, all in all, I suppose this was a lesson for the adolescents.

Just another day at the Homestead....