The Fireplace Story

My uncle Cyril built (many, many years ago) a beautiful outdoor fireplace out of natural stone. My father has always admired it and discussed building one for our family. Eventually he talked enough about it that he called his brother Cyril up and asked for help in making one.

It turned out great! It's been in use almost every day since it was put in. We put it to use frequently when there are old papers that you need destroyed (it's a lot better than a shredder!) With the big yard that my folks have there are always sticks that need to be burned, etc.

The grandkids are especially fond of the fireplace because they can roast marshmallows! The fireplace has been used many times to be the backdrop for family photos. Yes that one fireplace has many fond memories for everyone in my family.

Survey Marker

My father has a large garden (~acre) right behind the fireplace. One day while tilling the garden, he turned up an old survey marker head stone. It's a rounded piece of stone that was at the head of a permanent survey marker. It is only about ten inches tall and about four inches in diameter. It is many years old, and dad always liked the stone... the stone speaks of history of our property.

For some reason my father put the stone on top of the fireplace. It's kind of a head piece for the fireplace, but it's not mortared in. It actually is holding down the spark arrester on the top of the fireplace.

A Child's Interpretation

My son Max has always loved the fireplace. Recently he told our baby sitter that we were going to spend the weekend at his grandparents, and we were going to camp out in their back yard. Of course our sitter was intrigued and asked some basic questions.

Are you going to have a campfire?

Yes, grandpa has a fireplace outside!

Really?!

Yes, but it looks funny. It has a dinosaur wiener on it.

A WHAT?!!!

You know, a dinosaur's private wiener.

I think everyone enjoys Max's interpretation of the survey marker better.