Day 2880 Feeding the fire.

4th July 2025

That day arrived, we were having the family over for the annual celebration. I had the honour of being the cook, which was ironic, that a British person was cooking for Americans.

I had cut all the back lawns, the grass is pretty bad, so much of it is scorched beyond recognition, but I cut it anyway.

I unwrapped the grill, the first time since last year. I gave everything a good clean, and decided to start it using scraps of wood that I have in abundance. I didn’t want a repeat of last years fiasco where I ran out of charcoal before completing the grilling. I had a big bag, but using the wood scraps ensured I would not run out.

Fifteen minutes before the official start I started the kindling alight. 

All that was doing a good job, flames were flickering, I then decided to spread some charcoal over the burning wood. I carefully held the charcoal bag and shook a few chunks over the flames. As I set the bag down, I noticed that was on fire, now I was in a predicament, should I cook the burgers on the grill or the now burning bag. I was running around in circles trying to find something to extinguish the flames. 

Thankfully the hose was close by, I grabbed that hoping that the water was still turned on, yes it was. I fired a jet into the bag, the flames were soaked, I could breath again.

With all the dry grass on my lawn, I could have easily started the great fire of Holland, a great excuse for America to hate the British even more.

After that debacle, I got down to the serious business of tuning meat into blackened slabs of carbon.

Actually I didn’t do a bad job, everything was edible, although after several bottles of Dutch beer, I couldn’t  care less.

I’m always the last to eat, I had my two brads and a small burger to devour.

After the last of our guests left, I had the washing up to do, the young children that came never eat everything, most of the food is left on the plate, I should cook it, and throw it straight into the bin, and cut out the middle man.

Both Kelli and myself were exhausted, entertaining is such hard work, for me, fighting fires didn’t help. But now it’s over for another year, we are sitting hearing the fireworks exploding outside, Kelli is not ready to go to the organised displays yet, but she is no longer disturbed by them now, so another step in the right direction.