Nicole Scurlock
Our fire pit was a sad, metal ring sitting in the middle of a bare patch of dirt and dead grass. Yet, forthe cost of a few bundles of firewood and a counter full of refreshments, friends and family would flock to our backyard with their coolers and lawn chairs, and just like that, we’d have a party. My husband and I talked for years about creating an actual fire pit area, but did we really need to? Once the sun went down all you could see were the flames and the stars and thatseemed to be about enough.
Then one afternoon in May, I came across a video of a petite young woman sharing how she created her fire pit area with a simple design and a small budget. This was it! This was going to be our fire pit. If she could do it, surely we could too. I shared the video with my husband and we thought it would be the perfect weekend project. We headed out for supplies, but we ran into unexpected … roadblocks. Choices. There were too many choices to make. How big did we want the area to be? Should it have a border? Which stones would work best to build the fire pit? How many stones high did we want to go? Which stones would work best for the area around the fire pit? What in the world is lava rock? Shouldn’t we buy a set of matching chairs? Okay, this is costing more than we thought it would. We bought a few stones to build the fire pit and a can of inverted spray paint and headed home to come up with a better game plan.
After assessing the space, my husband hammered a short section of PVC pipe into the middle of the dirt patch and tied a string to it. He walked out a seven-foot radius and spray painted a 14-foot diameter circle. He dug out the area and laid down a black plastic sheet to prevent any grass or weeds from growing in the area. He stacked the stones, anchored down the plastic with fire wood, and then we headed back out to a landscaping place to browse rocks. We were recommended Brassfield Fines. The rocks are small and they pack down really well so we wouldn’t need a border, and we could mow right over it. The only problem was, they were out of Brassfield Fines at the moment, but they were expecting a shipment in on Monday.
Monday came and went, but no rocks. The week passed and no rocks. Eventually, the fire pit tumbled down our list of our priorities and before we knew it, more than a month had gone by with no rocks. As the weeks passed, I watched from the kitchen window as the rain collected in several areas of the plastic sheet. The birds began to use it as a birdbath. I told my husband we had to call another place. Victory! We finally had our rocks. We removed the plastic and filled the area. We bought matching Adirondack chairs. We planted tiki torches around the perimeter and waited inside for the sun to go down. It was a Sunday night, so we enjoyed our first fire for about 20 minutes before heading into bed. All that’s left to do now is stack firewood and spread the word. We’ll reconvene in October.
Nicole Scurlock lives in Greenfield with her husband and housecat. Their 20-year-old daughter attends
Purdue University. Nicole enjoys reading and baking in her spare time.
