Let's Make a Fire

Good news- I’ve got a bunch of new cabin and house related projects to share with you.  Work and life have been fantastically busy lately, but now that I’ve had the chance to come up for air a bit I can’t wait to share with you all that I’ve been doing.  Before we dive in on the first project though, I just wanted to mention that for the record, I do realize that “they” say the standard for blogging should be a minimum of 2 posts per week.  It’s not that I don’t know, in fact, back when I first started the blog I was on a consistent clip of five posts per week.  So what gives?  Turns out being full time employed with a job I love, a full time mom and wife, a part time DIYer and a full time blogger just isn’t sustainable.  I used to try to fit in DIY and blogging late at night and into the wee hours of the morning, but you moms out there know that an infant takes about 50% of your sleep time, so I just don’t have any to spare.  For me this blog has never really been about growing a following or turning it into its own business, it’s just a great way to keep a record of our labor of love.  One of my favorite things is looking back at old posts and seeing how far we’ve come.  So thanks for coming along with me.  And thanks for understanding when the posts get a little fewer and far between.  Sometimes life is best lived away from the computer.

So here’s what we’ve been up to.  As I mentioned back during wall paper hell, the goal initially at the cabin was to spend some time working outside while the weather was still beautiful.  (We really blew that one.)  The shoreline there has been growing naturally for at least a decade, so it was going to take quite a bit of weeding and digging to get a nice little beach for the kiddos to play in.  (And for me to lie on a floatie and drink mojitos during nap time.) But before we could start clearing the brush, we had to revive the old fire pit that had been buried and grown over, so that we would have a place to burn said brush.  Cue photos of the Hubs without his shirt on.

We started by digging out the old firepit blocks that were mostly buried under dirt and grass.

 

 Because I am a DIY hoarder, we saved these to use for a project down the road.

Then came the some what tricky project of leveling out the area.  The yard angles slightly down to the shoreline, which means in order for our little firepit to be level we had to sort of built it into the landscape.  
  

 Boden woke up from nap and became project foreman.  Get to work!
 

 I’m going to guess in this photo I’m saying, “Looks like we need to go a little lower there,” and Hubs is saying, “Looks like I’m going to need another beer.”  See all that shoreline wilderness we need to tackle?

 We got a great deal on landscaping blocks at Menards, these were just $0.80 a piece.  We bought enough for two courses, and a couple of bags of pea rock to fill in the bottom.  So for $25 bones and a little quality time spent with the Hubs digging, we have a fire pit.
 

Don't let the angle and the optical illusion fool you.  I assure you these blocks are level and in a perfect circle.  Unfortunately we didn't waste any time throwing weeds in here before I had a chance to snap some photos.  But I'm just keeping it real for you guys.

So that's Step #1- Build Fire Pit.  Step #2- Clean Up Shoreline to follow.   Baby steps.