Many years ago, we had a home with a working fireplace. Those of you who have a fireplace in your home know the aggravation and work associated with keeping the fire lit. Since my husband has practically no knowledge whatsoever of chopping wood, and I have less than that, we rarely used the fireplace.
One day late in summer, I went outside and decided it was time to clear brush and prune trees. I worked all day and when I finished, I was absolutely exhausted but proud of the cleanup. However, when I turned and saw the huge mound of debris that I had to take off somewhere, I was appalled.
There was no way I could fit all of that debris in my car…I would have to make a dozen trips. And we had no trailer or pick up truck for hauling. I had no earthly idea what to do with the mess. I seriously considered burning it all, but it was so windy that I didn’t want to chance it. With my luck I would have burned down the entire neighborhood.
So after pondering the problem, I remembered that across the street there was an empty lot for sale that sat between two houses. It had not been cleared and looked like a small forest.
Now, I knew better than to haul debris over to that empty lot and dump it. Yes, I knew better, but what was I supposed to do? I figured that the bush cuttings and old wood would just die and eventually nature would take its course, and nothing would be left.
I waited until evening when it was almost dark. Then I dragged the entire load across the street, onto the lot, and left it.
Looking both ways for anyone spying on me, and seeing that I was in the clear, I quickly ran back home. But every time I drove by the lot or sat on my front porch, I felt guilty.
The rest of the summer passed, autumn came and went. But the debris pile was still there.
It was in December that it all came back to haunt me.
We had a terrible ice storm. The entire county had to shut down, and to make matters worse, the power went out. It began to get really cold in my house. My husband drove throughout town trying to find firewood, but all had been sold out. There was nothing.
We didn’t own a chainsaw or knew anyone who did. So he decided to go buy one and we would go scavenging for downed limbs that we could cut and take home. But when he went to Walmart, it was closed….no power.
I finally gave in. I knew what I had to do.
I grabbed my wheelbarrow and headed across the street. Going into the empty lot, I began to retrieve every single stick, limb, and piece of wood I had dragged over there months earlier. I even found more wood than I had dumped…evidently my neighbor had been doing the same thing, and so I ended up dragging his home, too.
Little by little, we burned the entire debris pile in our fireplace and even had to resort to burning a small stash of facia board that I was going to use to replace rotten wood near my roof.
Unbelievable.
And then the power came on.
Sigh.
Well, I no longer felt guilty about the debris pile on the empty lot and at least we had kept warm. That was the important thing. Next time I would be prepared for an ice storm, and as far as debris and yard cuttings, I would trim bushes in moderation, bag them, and take them to the landfill.
The only negative? I had a lot of ashes to clean up in the fireplace. That darn debris pile just wouldn’t go away.
