Last March I was STILL raking and burning leaves. I have a big yard with a ton of really big, bushy trees. Anyway, it was kind of windy and I really was just trying to get my back corner raked up and burned. Our yard is fenced in. Anyway, it is way too windy to be burning but I really want those leaves gone so I decide to make a small pile to burn and just add a few leaves at a time so I can keep it under control. I clear out about a 2 foot area around the fire so if it spreads it won't go anywhere.
I am doing good and have been burning for about an hour or so. Cole and Sage were jumping on the trampoline. All of a sudden, we get a huge burst of wind, it blows the fire out of the burn pit and catches a few leaves, I go to rake them in and here comes another burst, I try to rake them in and then another burst of fire. I am now trying my hardest to get the fire back in control. Soon, it takes off to my neighbors yard, and then my other neighbors yard. I am fenced in on both sides. I yell for Cole to run and get Aunt Victoria. He kind of saunters in, I tell him to run, so he walks faster (seriously, I can't get them to slow down in a parking lot). He goes in and a minute or two later, Victoria kind comes out in her flip flop kind of shoes. I don't think she was at all expecting to see this. I am trying to bring buckets of water out (our hose is not even close enough to reach)but it is not working at all. So I throw her my rake and have her jump the back fence to rake a fire line while I try to put my other neighbors yard out with the water. Not working, at this time, I decide I had better call the fire department. I do so and then I grab my neighbors rake (it happened to be sitting there and it was missing almost all of the prongs) and jump the side fence to make a fire line over there. The fire is spreading at an uncontrollable rate and starting to go up some trees. By the way, my yard is not on fire at all! The people behind me have a Huge back yard and they only rake about 1/3 of it so there are plenty of leaves to feed the fire. People are all the time riding four wheelers on their property and stuff. This man goes by on his gator and just watches Victoria and I. A few minutes later, he comes back with a few teenage boys with him and he points out a spot we are missing. Seriously?! Did I mention I was 9 months pregnant? After about 15 minutes of this, the fire starts to put itself out. Ahh, still no fire trucks so Victoria says I should call back and tell them it is under control and they don't need to come. So I do. We are hauling some buckets of water to hot spots just to try to put them out when 2 fire trucks pull up. Victoria (did I mention that she rock?) walks up to the firemen and tells them that their assistance is no longer needed. They say they would like to look things over just to make sure. She tells them that we don't want them to because we don't have any money to pay a fine they will surely give us. I am so embarrassed about this whole scenario. Okay, this is why people like firemen and not policemen: They say something to the effect of: Mam, we are not here to give any fines. We don't do that, we just come to help. Let's take care of this before a policeman or the forestry people come and do give you a fine. So I hop back over the fence to my yard and ask if they want any help or any water or anything (trying to reconcile my imbecilic behavior. They decline but do give me a small lecture on burning. They were very respectful about it though and they didn't demean me at all. As they go to work, Victoria asks me why I asked them if I could help. I told her because I felt like a fool. She looks at me and starts to laugh, she says "you are hugely pregnant, how would that look if they actually let you help?" After they are done, they let Cole, Sage, Zeke, and Dempsey take a tour on the fire trucks. THANKS ROSSVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
It is about 3:30 when this is all over. You look out and the very back corner of our yard and the two neighbors yards are black. Victoria asks me what I am going to tell Will. I tell her, I am not going to tell him. She asks how I am going to manage that one. I told her that he was mowing tonight, the next day, he had had some other stuff going on and he wouldn't be home in the daylight for the next 2 days, after that, I would just play dumb. If the kids mentioned it, I would deal with it then.
I get in the shower so I can wash the clothes and get rid of any smelly evidence. As I get out of the shower, my phone rings. It is Will.
Will: Hey, what is going on there?
Me: Nothing much, what are you doing?
Will: Is everything alright?
Me: Yeah, are you okay?
Will: Polly! What is going on? How come the fire department was at our house?
ME: Which neighbor has the big mouth?
Will: Matt
Me: Tell him to mind his own business especially if he won't come over and help.
Will: What happened?
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Later that night, Will is working on his truck (he didn't have to mow after all so my plan wasn't going to work anyway)and I am out with him. My neighbor behind me comes over to the back fence. I can tell he wants to talk. I just stare at him and ignore him. I tell Will he is standing there. Will tells me to go over and talk, I tell him no because he sure didn't want to talk when he was watching Victoria and I put out the fire. I just stare at him and don't move. Finally, Will gets up to talk to him, I go inside. Turns out, it wasn't him who saw us, it was someone down the road. He just wanted to know why I didn't start on the other end of the yard so I could have burned all of his leaves for him. HA ha ha, everyone is a comedian aren't they.
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Why did I tell this little/long story? Well, now every time I burn leaves or boxes, Cole has to say something like, "Mom, please don't burn our yard...or the neighbors." I think it is kind of funny. He really is concerned though and since then, fire makes him a little nervous.
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p.s. the pictures are not actually from my fire, they are stolen off of google images.
