The Thanksgiving Bonfire

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and had the whole crew over for a big meal. The food was amazing.  I mean every dish was perfect.  After our Thanksgiving feast, we all waddled out to the pasture.  You know, that uncomfortable, "I ate too much and should have passed on the dessert" walk.  We walked out there to light up the bonfire. Since Spring, every time limbs fall out of the trees in the yard, we pile them up on our burn pile in the pasture near the barn. Over the course of months, the limbs pack down under the weight and they dry out.

We have a ten foot high by fifteen foot wide pile of dry sticks waiting to go ablaze on a chilly night. All it took was a couple of matches and some strategically placed newspaper and we had a little fire going that lit up the darkened area a little bit.  It was then that Benjamin reminded me that we had a water hose running right underneath the pile that we quickly pulled out of the way before we melted it.  The burn pile serves as a sanctuary for doves, for hens to run into when being chased by roosters and neighbor kids, and some other critters hide there as well.

C'mon baby light my fire!

It was pretty chilly and as the flames grew higher, we huddled closer to the fire to feel the warmth of the fire that radiated outward.

Flames growing a little higher

The curious cows approached the fire, too, accompanied by a couple of my nephews.

Cowboys

As the flames leapt higher, the entire family enjoyed watching the fire, talking, and warming up right next to it.

Family Bonfire

The fire lit up the night sky.  A couple of years ago when we lit it up, the fire department showed up, sirens wailing.  A neighbor thought our barn was on fire and called 911.  I had to go and thank them for coming anyway.  The heat grew along with the height of the flames and pretty soon, we had backed up as far as we could go against the barn and it was still uncomfortably hot.

Back it up

When we couldn't bear the heat anymore, we moved to the other side of the bonfire where we could back up to a comfortable distance.  It was generating a lot of heat.

A Roaring Blaze

Tongues of flame were dancing into the night sky - easily 25 feet into the air. Fortunately there was no wind blowing as that might have caused alarm for our barn filled with hay.

Tongues of fire

For perspective, you can see just how big the fire was against the two story barn. You can also see the double strand poly wire electric fence that I had to move back away from the fire so it wouldn't melt.  It was about this time where we saw something scurry out of the pile, run across the pasture and into the garden.  All the kids gave chase.  It looked like it was the size of a rabbit.  They stomped around in the garden and out he came.  A big ugly rat running like crazy, scared to death, followed by a herd of stomping, giggling, screaming kids.  And really, you just know that the fun at a bonfire has only just begun when a rat shows up.

It reminded me of the boys chasing the pigs in the book, The Lord of the Flies.   They cut off the rat's head, put it on a stick and paraded it around.  No, they really didn't do that.  The poor old rat was so frightened by the mob of kids chasing him, he ran out of the garden and right back into the fire!  

Now that's a fire!

He quickly determined that that wasn't a good move and ran back toward the garden.  Big mistake, Mr. Rat, for the tribe was awaiting that.  A few kicks and stomps and the enormous rat's life came to a tragic end.  Not counting the length of the tail, this guy was almost a foot long.  A quick election was held by the tribe of kids and they voted to cremate the rat in the bonfire.  We watched as the rat baked in the inferno.  They pulled out his charred and blackened remains after a bit and stuck a stick in him to check on his level of 'doneness,' and he was 'well-done.'  No one ate him, though.  We were still way too full from the Thanksgiving feast. 

Mr. Rat's remains prior to cremation

The fire consumed the huge burn pile and we circled it to kick sticks into the center. It was so hot, you couldn't stand it for long before you had to back away and cool off.  As the fire dwindled, so did the crowd.  One by one we made our way back inside.

Dwindling bonfire

We recruited the neighbor kid to stand on the bannister and take a picture of the entire family.  The whole 'smoke-smelling, rat-stomping, casserole-engorged' crew smiled for the camera as Xander snapped off quite a few photographs before we found one where everyone was relatively photogenic.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

The next morning I walked out to the pasture and here is all that was left of the burn pile.  Virtually every stick (and rat) went up in smoke and was gone.

The fire is gone...

All that remained was ashes... and good memories of another Thanksgiving.