On another day, my good friend Matt and myself, decided to make a T-pee tent out of an old wool army blanket, inside their garage, right next to the tank of gasoline and terpentine. As the smoke billowed from our T-Pee we were finally forced to evacuate the building, though at the time we thought it great fun,...until his dad and my Dad came home. We got in trouble with our partents.
I decided I liked fire. I was well on my way to becoming a pyromaniac, even to the point of being threatened by my Dad. So, my last fire, just behind the cedar plantar box of our neighbors me and my other good friend, Jeffrey,....we started our last fire. It was about 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon...just a few minutes before my Dad got home. But not to worry. He could not see us behind the plantar box...so I thought. And I was right. But he could see the billowing smoke arising from behind the plantar box. Now all he had to do was examine the probability that I was the instigator. He came, straight as an arrow to me and...well I got in trouble with my parents....but he did impress upon me the need that I not play with fire anymore...and I didn't until I got married....and my wife and I were 1/2 way through building our home on our farm. So I picked up a lot of small pieces of lumber and paper from the yard and made a very large pile...that February....in a 35 knot wind....in a drought......with only a very small 1/2 inch, 25 foot garden hose....As the fire expanded to the pasture and toward the house, I told my 3 daughters...."Don't tell your mother about this"....whereupon the three of them ran to their mother to tell them what their Dad was doing, and in fact, had done. She came out....and was actually able to see me through the flames....well...alls well that ends well.....but......I got in trouble with my wife. I am not allowed to play with matches to this day.....I am 60 years old.
You almost burnt down your new house? Man, if your wife is anything like mine, you are lucky to be alive.