I Had A Good Idea

I'm stealing the title from my son Will. He says that all the time, except in the present tense - "I have a good idea."

Last week Will was talking about wanting to camp in the backyard - setting up the tent and having a camp fire. We've set up the tent before but never actually slept in it, so we'll have to give that a try. I'm not sure how the boys will do though, whether they would sleep or how long they would stay in the tent with me. I've decided I'll have to choose a Friday night to try that.

As for the camp fire, at first I thought that would be impossible. We live in the suburbs, with neighbors on either side, within easy throwing distance. The back yard is mostly lawn. Not the best conditions to have a campfire, and I don't want a burned spot in the lawn.

As I was thinking about it, I remembered that we have an old, round, portable charcoal grill in the garage. We could use that to hold the fire and not burn the lawn. As I thought about how this would be a good solution to us being able to have a campfire, I thought of one the traditional things that go with campfires - smores. And I thought to myself, "Why wait for the camping part to have the smores part?"

I suggested to Stephanie that the next time she went grocery shopping that she purchase the necessary items for the creation of smores. She did that yesterday. We decided tonight would be the night that we would make fire and eat smores.

After supper I went out and retrieved the charcoal grill from the garage. I also found a partial bag of charcoal. I placed the grill on the cement pad in front of our bulk head (the lawn surrounds it on three sides) and remove the lid and grill. I crumpled paper in the bottom, wandered around the yard picking up twigs and sticks that had fallen from our oak tree, piled some of these on top of the paper and then put some charcoal on top of that.

The ingredients for smores were brought out and placed on the patio table. I used a lighter to start the "campfire". Soon we had a small but healthy blaze going. The boys were quite excited. This was their first campfire. Smores were then very quickly hunted down, cooked and consumed. Stephanie and I spend the next hour or so just sitting around the fire, enjoying it's warmth and glow. The boys were on constant foraging expeditions to find things they can throw into the fire. Boys after my own heart; budding pyros. As it was getting darker, Will went inside and got his flashlight. He and Ben took turns using it on their expeditions.

The only drawback was the mosquitoes. Otherwise it was a wonderful, relaxing time that the whole family enjoyed. As bed time rolled around, I reluctantly put the lid over the glowing coals and went inside.

I had a good idea. And sometimes it does pay to be a pack rat.