Saturday Night

Yesterday, Neal and I...okay...I...had a long list of to-do's. But the two main things we wanted to accomplish were 1) burn the brush pile (Lita's job) and 2) finish welding the top rail on the fence (Neal's job). I got my job done before noon, thank you very much. (I won't mention that I singed my golden locks in the process.) Neal, however, never even got out the welding machine. Maybe I should take some of the blame. Since I was burning brush, why don't we (I use the word "we" loosely) go ahead and get that dead branch out of the front tree so we can throw it on the fire? You know where this is heading. One dead branch turned into many dead branches and before all was said and done, the tree got a good scalping. I really don't know what lead to the next chain of events, but somewhere, somehow, we got the notion to finish my fire pit that I've wanted done since we moved in over a year and a half ago. This meant tractor work (yeah for Neal), picking up rocks and hauling them to the fire pit, then arranging them in a circle. Then Neal left with Jeremy & Mike (Jeremy's dad-in-law) for Western Oklahoma to do a little bow hunting.

So tonight, I decided to try out the "campfire." There's just something about a fire, you know what I mean? I got a good one going just as it got dark, and just as the sound of a deer snorting reminded me that it was the time of day they usually come out to eat at the deer feeder. Uh oh, guess I'm gonna scare off Neal's deer. Oh well. C'est la vie.


This is my kind of Saturday night. Roasting marshmallows, watching the flames dance, hearing the wood crackle, feeling the warm glow of the fire on my face and losing myself as I'm mesmerized by the fire. Occasionally I lean back and look at the stars, something that can't be appreciated in the city. I hear a noise and shine my flashlight out into the field. Guess I didn't scare the deer after all. The doe and her two fawns are feeding not 50 yards from me.

It's a time of meditation, a time of reflection, a time of just being. How peaceful. This is now my second favorite place on the farm....second only to the front porch swing. Don't tell Neal how much this is growing on me. He still thinks I'm unselfishly sacrificing by giving up the city life.

All alone...just me and God...and the deer. Very cool. Then I hear a pack of coyotes...not cool. Oh well, they sound pretty far away.

Black on one side...just the way I like them.