Dream Time

In these days of late winter, we find ourselves dreaming more and more. We are in the least active part of our year, so we tend to look ahead to the coming months, our heads filled with dreams and plans for improving the property. We still hope to build a sauna, maybe this year; we always need more shelves, some of which are actually getting built; of course, there’s a lot of garden planning to do. Right now, the plan that has most of our attention is a new beach fire pit.

Our fire pit has come and gone repeatedly. There’s a nice flat part of the beach just below the greenhouse that’s very pleasant. It gets good sun, it’s fairly sheltered from the wind, and is easy to get to, even while balancing several dishes. The original owners built a fire ring there, and we expanded it, piling flat rocks into an oven at one end of the pit. We would build a beach fire, then rake the coals into the oven, and bake. We’ve made some good cakes, and even some pizzas in that oven.

Unfortunately, the area floods on the highest tide cycles. That’s not so bad—a good flushing every now and then keeps the ashes piling up too much. The problem comes when a storm accompanies the high tide. When that happens, floating logs come racing in to the beach like battering rams, and smash the oven to bits! Last summer, I built the oven a third time. We need a new plan.

Michelle came up with the idea early one morning. Before we moved here, we replaced the woodstove in the guesthouse with a newer, better model some friends had given us. We carried the old stove out to the covered area in front of the guesthouse, and there it’s stayed, too old and burned out to put inside, but still too good to scrap. Michelle proposed that we set it up on the beach, near the old fire ring, but higher up the beach. We know just the place—a spot we’ve wanted to make a new ring in, but haven’t ever quite gotten it to work. The stove, set there, and surrounded by flat rocks, should be just the thing.

We probably won’t put this plan into action until mid or late spring, since we’d mostly use it in the summer. But having a plan, or several, helps. It’s dream time now; the time for action will come soon enough.

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