We have decided that one of our summer projects this year will be a fire pit. We saw one at the garden show yesterday and Dear Richard fell in love with it. The whole kit (which included a nice grate for cooking (pizza! on a real hot bed of coals! as well as a neat topper for the pit) was less expensive than we thought it would be. And while the company does not deliver to our area (they're from down around Harrisburg), they do have a stone display closer to us and they will deliver from that place. Although we can use our truck and pick the kit up from there ourselves, saving a bit of money that way.
They had some really nice fireplaces at the show, too. My sister and I are intrigued with the fireplace that has the pizza oven on top. We won't do anything like that, but even a stone fire pit would be nice.
Last year, when we worked on moving dirt around from putting the shed in the yard, we ran out of time. The shed was delivered in October and we had snow right away and then it got too cold to be outside for hours at a time. They did get the wiring done for the shed (we have lighting and they installed electric receps for plugging things in), but we've done no landscaping and the many, many wheelbarrow piles of dirt are just in a huge area in back of the house. So this spring, we need to get out there and grade the back yard, move the tiki bar out of the way, and get some landscaping done.
Rick has promised me a pergola this summer, but we'll see. I'm really hoping we can get it done as well as the fire pit.
When we were at the garden show, we saw this particular fire pit and Rick stopped and said, "That's the one. That's the one I want." My sister and I sat down on the chairs next to the pit, propped our feet up on the pit and I said, "Yeah, I can burn my sneakers pretty good on this thing!" The guy started laughing at me. But it's true. My sister and I both burned more than our share of sneakers on fire rings when we were camping when we were kids. Dad would always tell us to move our feet. We always said, "Oh, we're fine!" And minutes later, our sneakers would start to smoke. We melted them down pretty good sometimes.
I come from a camping family and one of the most enjoyable things about summer for us is a fire. We used to sit by the fire for hours (smoking sneakers, evidently). We'd let it burn down to a nice bed of coals, make hot dogs or mountain pies, s'mores, whatever we had. Once we were all finished eating, then we'd build the fire back up to a roar and sit there until 2-3 in the morning, letting it burn back down again. Sitting and watching the fire. Listening to the owls hooting around us. Dad used to be able to call the owls in. And even after I got married, we'd go up to Mom and Dad when they were camping, spend the day with them, and drive back down the mountain at 3:00 in the morning. I can see Rick and me using a fire pit. And I know that my family would really enjoy it, too.
But I think I'll tell my sister to wear some really old sneakers when she comes over!
Anybody else have some projects for this summer?
They had some really nice fireplaces at the show, too. My sister and I are intrigued with the fireplace that has the pizza oven on top. We won't do anything like that, but even a stone fire pit would be nice.
Last year, when we worked on moving dirt around from putting the shed in the yard, we ran out of time. The shed was delivered in October and we had snow right away and then it got too cold to be outside for hours at a time. They did get the wiring done for the shed (we have lighting and they installed electric receps for plugging things in), but we've done no landscaping and the many, many wheelbarrow piles of dirt are just in a huge area in back of the house. So this spring, we need to get out there and grade the back yard, move the tiki bar out of the way, and get some landscaping done.
Rick has promised me a pergola this summer, but we'll see. I'm really hoping we can get it done as well as the fire pit.
When we were at the garden show, we saw this particular fire pit and Rick stopped and said, "That's the one. That's the one I want." My sister and I sat down on the chairs next to the pit, propped our feet up on the pit and I said, "Yeah, I can burn my sneakers pretty good on this thing!" The guy started laughing at me. But it's true. My sister and I both burned more than our share of sneakers on fire rings when we were camping when we were kids. Dad would always tell us to move our feet. We always said, "Oh, we're fine!" And minutes later, our sneakers would start to smoke. We melted them down pretty good sometimes.
I come from a camping family and one of the most enjoyable things about summer for us is a fire. We used to sit by the fire for hours (smoking sneakers, evidently). We'd let it burn down to a nice bed of coals, make hot dogs or mountain pies, s'mores, whatever we had. Once we were all finished eating, then we'd build the fire back up to a roar and sit there until 2-3 in the morning, letting it burn back down again. Sitting and watching the fire. Listening to the owls hooting around us. Dad used to be able to call the owls in. And even after I got married, we'd go up to Mom and Dad when they were camping, spend the day with them, and drive back down the mountain at 3:00 in the morning. I can see Rick and me using a fire pit. And I know that my family would really enjoy it, too.
But I think I'll tell my sister to wear some really old sneakers when she comes over!
Anybody else have some projects for this summer?
