While we're all waiting for Donald Trump to give his speech later tonight--I've got my popcorn maker ready--I decided to take the time to discuss events that have occurred here on Killing House Road, in Grapevine, AR, where I reside with my family.
Yesterday, while we should have been in church, our yard caught on fire while we were doing some burning out behind our house. God has his ways of letting you know you should be doing other things, perhaps, on Sunday, and this small eye-catcher was one way to remind me, at least, that we, perhaps, should HAVE been in church yesterday.
Although what we were burning began in a small pond, dug out behind our house, and was surrounded by marshlands, the prairie grass that was dried around it provided just enough fuel, spurred on by a small 5-10mph breeze. It was a blessing that our house was built with concrete siding, because the flames came directly up to the back of the foundation. We're also blessed with wonderful neighbors--the Cox family--who saw the smoke signals and were out on their 4-wheelers stomping out flames before the fire engines got here. There was no need for anything more than stamping, digging and swatting out the flames around the periphery of the burning, but we were, indeed, fortunate. We caught it before it happened to hit our well or the adjacent deer lease land, which would have been unfortunate.
It's good to promote prescribed burns, with this in mind. Typically, we would have burned off this portion of our yard anyway. Maybe not so close to the house, but it's always good to ensure that the extra brush is raked up and cared for so that disaster does not happen. We typically burn this time of year anyway to prepare for a garden in the coming months, so I suppose all of our work is done for us, with respect to that.
That being said, I can't wait to begin our garden this year. I prefer our backyard green, rather than crispy. Having five acres to manage is sometimes more than we bargained for; however, it's so peaceful out here, we enjoy the space. And our wonderful neighbors--I know I speak for my entire family when I say we are thankful that we are surrounded by such great people!