Late Winter Day

On a not-terribly-cold (below freezing, but only by ten degrees or less) late winter Saturday, we had an impromptu family dinner.  It started as DD1 & Honorary Son coming down to stay with us before going to the wedding of one of DD1's high school friends on Sunday afternoon. From their arrival, it rolled into them seeing if K3 and Toad could come over to play for most of Saturday.  Then DS2 and Surprise drove over (to pick up some important mail of DS2's that was here) and DH decided we should cook out for dinner since a large majority of the family was present and the weather was decent for Michigan in late winter.

Way before dinner time, though, there was some work to be done.  DH and I had wood from those dead trees we'd felled a weekend or two prior that we had to pick up out of the field before warmer weather hit and the field began to thaw.  Toad decided that he wanted to help us with that.  Mainly because it would include riding out to the fence line on the tractor with his Papa.

He was a big help, though, picking up firewood and tossing it onto the wood hauler trailer just like DH and I.

Once the trailer was filled, of course Toad go to ride on top of the wood stack all the way back to the house.

We had left eight or nine of the larger chunks of wood out in the field.  Because, you see, we would need seats to sit on while cooking and eating our dinner that evening.  We were grilling out!  Using up some of the brush piles that had resulted from limbing those dead trees in the fire wood cutting process, DH's plan was to cook hot dogs over a real wood fire, the first 'grilled' dinner of 2019.

While they waited for the fire to burn down enough to cook over the coals, K3 and Toad set out to track some animals.  They followed deer tracks hither and yon through the field.

They came running back when it was time to cook the hot dogs.

After K3 and Toad went home, just before their bedtime, DD1 & Honorary Son went back in the house, but DS2, Surprise, DH and I stayed out for a while longer, sitting on our wooden 'chairs' enjoying the warmth of the fire and listening to coyotes calling less than a mile away.  It's mating season around here, so the coyotes have been more vocal lately.  I yipped back, seeing if I could get a response, and a few times I was successful.  Surprise tried it too, and we tried to get DD1 (who is excellent at calling coyotes) to come back outside but she was all ready comfy on the couch.

All in all, it was a good way to spend a day (and night!)