Happiness on a 1/2 Acre

Yesterday our little family headed for the hills to get some firewood. Matt has already brought home 3 loads of juniper from the ranch, but I wanted a few loads of quaky for quick starting fires. Matt, Kelsey, and Judd went Saturday morning for one load. Our little crew plus Matt's dad went for another in the afternoon.

The girls were great helpers. They stacked all the wood in the truck and had a great time doing it.

Matt did most of the cutting, his dad did some, and I hauled it all to the truck. It was a beautiful fall afternoon.

Matt, Kelsey, Emmitt, Kendal, and their grandpa.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I have to tell one little story about this jacket. I love it. It is my favorite. If you could see the front of it, you would see a HUGE hole in the red flannel that has been stitched up once and re-ripped. My brother gave me this jacket. It was in a little better shape when he gave it to me, but not much. There are a few buttons missing and I think they were missing when I received it.

Anyway, I got this jacket when I was on my first EVER fire. It was just a little one outside of Richfield and we were initial attacking it overnight since we arrived on the fire in the evening. I had packed EVERYTHING in my pack but a jacket. My brother was on the fire with me, I think he was the Incident Commander of the fire, and around midnight he asked me if I had a jacket because it would be getting cold soon, plus we were getting the fire out. I told him no so he pulled this one out of his pack for me. It went on EVERY single fire I went on for all 5 years I fought fire. I love this jacket. It makes me think of my brother, the smell of smoke and water mixed together, sore feet, drinking warm water from my canteens in the middle of July, my polaski, my sweet nomex pants, sleeping in tents for too many nights in a row with no shower, a do-rag on my head, and many many things. But mostly it reminds me of my brother. He is a good guy and a super big brother. I love him.