Backyard Firepit

Last winter I bought a firepit.  I was having a get together at my place the night I bought it, so we lit it up.  We roasted some marshmallows (yuck!) for smores, but it was a windy night.  The cold wind ripped through the backyard and over the firepit sending flaming sparks into the dry treed and pine straw, so I made the executive decision to douse it.  It was too cold for people to be sitting outside anyway.  Since, the poor pit has been hibernating under my back deck.

A few weeks ago a park intern, Hailey, was facing the end of her internship, but planning to stay in town.  She stayed with me for a week while she was homeless and looking for a place.  Her last night here we drug out the firepit and planned a dinner of grilled pimento cheese sandwiches!  As I flipped over the bowl of the pit, I was met with a glorious sight!  I called Hailey out, and she promptly ran back in to get the camera.

 We tried to get a shot of the underside of this Black Widow without stressing her out too much, but she was not inclined lie on her back motionless for very long.  Eventually we just took this short video.

Now, I grew up with Black Widows out in the country.  I guess it's pretty weird, but this is one of the few spiders that does not give me the heebie geebies.  They used to run across my hands when I was weeding the garden, and I never thought much of it.  This one, she was huge!  The ones I've seen have usually been about the size of a nickle, including their leg span.  But this one had a leg span of nearly two inches!  I had no idea that got that big!  After giving her her fifteen minutes of fame, I gently flicked her back under the deck.  After all, she's not hurting anything, and you know she's not the only one down there anyway.

We got the fire going as it got dark.  I keep large limbs and branches from the yard under a tarp under the deck.  Most of it is pine and can't be burned in the fireplace, so it is perfect for the pit.  Though, now I am very careful when disturbing piles of wood under the deck, since I know our little friend above is hanging out down there somewhere.

After the grilled cheese, Hailey remembered that she had smores stuff in her car, so she rosted up some marshmallows.  Turned out there was no chocolate, but we managed to find some double chocolate icing, so we spread that on graham crackers.  Things got a little silly...

And then things got a little messy...

And then things got down right ridiculous!

While Hailey was roasting her mallow, her prepared graham cracker went missing.  She searched the ground, but there was no sign of it.  So, we turned on the flashlight and found the missing cracker stuck to her shirt!  Just one of the reasons that icing is not meant to be an ingredient in smores!

I don't recall if I had a smore, personally I can't stand the things, but sometimes you just have to do something for the experience.  Hailey sure seemed to like them though!

A good meal, good evening, and all round good time with a good friend, who was a very easy roommate.  I still love living alone though!

 It's been cooling off, so I expect I'll be seeing more of the firepit in the near future, before it gets too cold to enjoy.