Honey, Water and Fire

Want to hear about my three brushes with disaster? No? Too bad, you're already reading and now you are hooked. Only one was truly too close for comfort, but all three were interesting.

Grandpa and I were across the creek at his house cleaning up brush. Merrill had built a small building there, and there was a pile of lumber. Remember the song that was sung by The Edwards Trio many years ago? It went something like this, "When the Canaanites hardened their hearts against God And grieved him because of their sin God sent along hornets to bring them to task And to help His own people to win The hornets persuaded them that it was best To go quickly and not to go slow They did not compel them to go against their will They just made them willing to go If a nest of live hornets were brought to this room And the creatures allowed to go free You would not need urging to make yourself scarce You'd want to get out don't you see? They would not lay hold and by force of their might Throw you out of the window, oh no They would not compel you to go against your will They would just make you willing to go!" Just understand this...Grandpa and I were the Canaanites that day. And, you know what? It is best to go quickly and not to go slow! We jumped into the same creek that Grandma and I nearly drowned in (see previous blog about fishing). Grandpa twisted an ankle getting into the creek, and he was also stung twenty or thirty times. However, we both survived.

Not too long after that episode, the creek rose to flood stage. Normally, Painter Creek is a peaceful stream, maybe three feet deep in its deepest parts, six inches in other areas. When it floods, it can be eight to ten feet deep. Grandpa and I were on the bridge that Gene Shields helped him put across the creek. The water was rushing mere inches from the bottom of the bridge. A large piece of wood that Grandpa thought could be used for firewood was floating toward the bridge. I grabbed an oar from our famous boat and attempted to stop the piece of wood. The force of the floating wood came too close to flipping me off the bridge into the water. Between bees and firewood, Grandpa and I had quite the experiences around the creek.

Everyone knows that you should NEVER throw gasoline on a fire, right? I know that, too. And, I wouldn't do it. But, the week before Kim Lavy Marshall's wedding, I was burning brush here at my home. I know you are thinking, "What a dummy he was!" But, just listen and tell me where you know that I went wrong. I had a fire going. It went out and was no longer burning at all. Approximately, five to ten feet away, I stacked a bunch of brush. I got the gas can from the garage ( I hear you, there is where I went wrong!) and poured a large quantity of gas on the pile of brush. After soaking it, I turned around, walked away a few feet to set the can down. Behind me, the brush pile exploded into flame! The only explanation is that the fumes from the gas I had poured travelled along the ground to where the previous fire was. Enough heat remained to ignite the fumes, and the Lord was watching out for me is all I can say about that. If it had exploded while I was pouring, you wouldn't be reading my blog!

Thanks for reading. See you next time.