Unplanned Bon Fire Party for TWO

Thursday night was a bit of a surprise, mom came down and got us just after we had gotten in bed and said the burn bile of storm debris was being stirred back up by the wind off the river.  Mom was obviously worried, but my husband didn't seem to be and he told her it would be OK.  I on the other hand couldn't go back to sleep and got up to check and sure enough the flames where huge and the sparks where flying off into the woods between us and our neighbor, so even though he wasn't worried I put on my sandals turned on the hose and headed down the yard to the fire.  Of course, I am my mothers daughter, and she too was coming down from the upper deck and like my husband my dad seemed to think it would die down on its own because he didn't join us either.  

Mom and I battled this sucker for about an hour and a half (she would have stayed all night until the last spark was gone but when we got the fire out I got her to go watch the burn pile from the house to make sure it wouldn't start back up), the fire was up inside the trunk of the tree stump and the angle of the wind was keeping the flames alive. I kept seeing sparks like little fairies going off into the air, only it wasn't so magical, all I could think was any moment the woods that were so damaged by the storm weeks before, will now burn down in an inferno we caused and possibly our neighbors home on the hill above.The only way to keep the fire down was to stay on our knees and shoot the water up into the stump directly at the hottest part of the fire, it's the closest I ever want to come to being a fireman and gave me new respect for the job they do.

After we battled it, I went inside cleaned up, changed PJ's and flopped into bed.  When I got up in the morning I discovered my feet were black with soot and I had totally missed it, OOPS!  Guess I am changing the bed linens today.  I love bonfires, but this one actually scared me.