This afternoon, we had one of Levi's friends over after school. Mum and Dad were doing a ballet rehearsal for his younger sister. Ty has been asking to do a fire by the creek for a while and so we went to the creek this afternoon to have a play. As they have grown older and the creek grows smaller over winter, it is a very safe place to play now. I can sit there next to the creek in the shade and just watch them having fun, without feeling like a parental unit is watching their every move. First off, they went exploring and climbed trees around the banks of the creek. They started off in their school uniforms but gradually, gradually as things got wet and they shed their clothes, they were much less dressed. By the end I think they both wanted to start the fire because they were cold more than anything else! Once that decision was made, the next step was collecting wood. Both boys crossed the creek probably fifteen times bringing wood to my feet, while I sat beside a pile of driftwood about as high as my head while I sat in the folding chair. Back and forward, co operating to carry huge logs over (for a fire that at most we could have for about 90 minutes), but it was all about the preparation!
The fire was worth it though. It is just one of those things that spreads comfort. You can feel the weight of tens of thousands of generations who have sat beside fires and poked them with sticks. The boys acted like cavemen, so it wasn't a big stretch! All in all, it was quite successful. No one got hurt. Nothing that we didn't want to burn was set on fire.
Then we went back up the hill to the house. Both boys saw the huge pile that had been delivered that day and wanted to run up and down the 'dirt pile'; except it wasn't dirt exactly. Well not yet! I mean cow manure eventually becomes dirt. Right?
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