Bonfire

Wednesday night Tammy and I finally had a bonfire - which is actually an excuse to also burn a tree stump.  I had dug around this stump in the Spring then covered it with a wooden pallet all summer to prevent any of the horses - especially the partially blind horse - from falling into the hole.

The weather Wednesday night was good - finally after the rain this week - but that changed once we prepared the site with wood and paper for the fire.  The evening started out mostly clear and wind free...

but then to the north a dark mass of clouds swept into Whitefish and Columbia Falls and the mountains to the north.  The clouds and rain were solid to the ground.

"No worries.  That will move east to the mountains and Glacier Park."

Wrong!

Instead of going east the clouds came south.

Darn.  I had the tree stump covered with wood and paper and I didn't want it to get wet.

The wind picked up fierce but with little rain.  Once the front passed and the wind died down I decided to light the fire anyway.  If the rain picked up the paper would be burnt and I wouldn't have to deal with wet paper the next night.

Tammy and I sat in the pickup and watched the fire between the movement of the pickup's windshield wipers.

"So romantic!"

When the fire would die down I would dash outside to add more wood to it.

Eventually it quit raining and we set up out lawn chairs to have a ringside view of the fire.

Then it would start raining again.    Back into the pickup we went.

We did this dance two or three more times before the rain finally quit and the clouds broke up to reveal stars and the Big Dipper.  Then we got the bottle of wine out.

The horses were in the pasture and were curious as to what we were doing.  They checked stuff out and one horse tried to bite a plastic bottle.  Once the fire started they kept their respectful distance.  One time several horses came near.  In the darkness we could only hear them walking in the tall grass and had to use a flashlight to make sure the sounds were coming from the horses and not some other animal.

Here is the view the next day.  The tree stump is all gone.