Anniversary Day. 14 years of love.

I wrote this the other day. August 2nd was our anniversary.

We had planned to go and do some work on the land in the late afternoon and then go to dinner. But the early half of the day was shaping up to be really busy for me and I thought that I wouldn't make it til dinner. That was ok, since we're going to stay at the Mauna Kea with the kids in 2 weeks and celebrate then.

In any case, we got home from a busy and late day in town and Luka was asleep. Ra'am suggested that we go and do our land work. We left the kids at home with the Japanese exchange student who was staying with us.

That.... well that was crazy. We were trying to use a pink string to connect 2 poles that mark corners of the property- so that we could see where the property line is. Problem is we were spanning like 500 ft.... and there were plants and trees and just stuff in the way. And GB kept telling me we were going for perfection. yup.

anyhow, we left, but partway home realized we hadn't looked at possible housesites. so we went back. walked around. talked. saw mosquitos.

then.... on the way to the car.... GB sees some bees still hanging around a beehive he was trying to get rid of. He'd been torching it with his flame thrower.....

weeeellll. he saw the bee and wanted to bust out the flamer. I said that I needed to get back to the baby. Luka had been awake for awhile at home and was happily watching a movie, but I didn't wanna push it. Plus, it was time to make dinner.
BUT... did GB listen? NOOOOOO. dude busted out the flamer in an attempt to sizzle out whatever was left of the hive. And what was the result? a burning tree.

the tree was already a falling down tree- in the shape of an arc. and it was most likely all hollow already. that hollowness? a perfect vector for the fire to shoot through. PLUS, the hollow thing was probably filled with beeswax. ever used a beeswax candle? burns.

of course one would think that we should have grabbed a hose and squirted. great. if there was a hose. the land is au naturel. no improvements... yet.

and GB? in the beginning, he was throwing clumps of dirt at it. did nothing.

I went to buck and lena's and picked up their fire extinguishers. they are designed for little kitchen flares. not a tree.

so after a lot of uh ohs, we decided to go home so I could tend to the baby and he could get his chainsaw. with that, he could cut the tree down and then deal with it by shovelling dirt on it.

he came home and picked up Ra'am... oh, and we got the pizzas we had ordered an HOUR before that were getting cold at the closed pizza place. sigh...

the boys did put it out. in the dark.... and it took an extra 2 hours. they got home after 9. and R's first day of school is tomorrow. so much for being prepared.

so our anniversary? was interesting. and I spent at least 20 minutes of it making jokes and telling GB how stupid he was for starting a fire.

and just for perspective? this is the SECOND time! our bulldozer guy is allergic to bee stings, and too macho to carry an epi pen. He asked GB to get rid of the hives. when he torched the 1st one, he did it in the am, and walked away. he had to go back in the eve to put out the smoking embers. luckily that day it rained. today, is remarkably DRY. of course.