Black Friday Bonfire

2020-11-27

Bonfire event started out a little slow as it was just James and me for the first few hours. We made the most of it, burning through the slightly more dangerous branches that still had leaves attached. It had been wet for a few days prior so we didn't have to chase down all the flying cinders, but we made a game of it anyway.

We polished off a bottle of our 2016 Valkyrie mead, made from honey from a dead out that spring. We were buzzing like bees by the time our first guests arrived.

Shawn was the first to show, and we showed off the pond while we talked about gardening and a little bit of politics.

Matthew arrived a little later and it was time for another tour, this time taking the full circuit around to show off the bee garden and the future site of the community garden.

My son Frank arrived and we decided that was a good time to burn some things in effigy of sadness and celebration of 2020. A picture of our dog that we lost a few weeks ago, an "I voted" sticker, a BCF logo to celebrate a good season of harvest, and of course an N95 mask.

We continued to have an open conversation about politics...with healthy disagreements...without resorting to the hatefulness of similar conversations that occur online. I think part of it is that conversations are meant to be had face to face, where you can immediately see from someone's body language whether your point is being made or misconstrued, and part of it was because we agreed that political conversations should avoid conversations about actual politicians, but instead be about values, ideas, goals, philosophy.

Eventually we moved on to discussing musical theatre and pickup trucks. A few verses of songs from 1776 and Jesus Christ Superstar (two of my personal favorites) had been belted out by the time Chris and Cheryl arrived....which is always when a party can really start.

Beer, wine, good friends, good arguments, a little singing...all appropriately social-distanced but mask-free...and a roaring fire.

Definitely need to find time to repeat this event some time soon!

https://www.facebook.com/events/218074493077503/

Friday, November 27, 2020 at 1 PM – 5 PM
606 N. Calumet Avenue, Valparaiso, IN 46383

What a wonderful awful year it's been - and as much as we've loved seeing you all during the gardening season, we can't wait for the holidays to start because that means once we get through them, this year is over.

So let's start the holiday season off right and send this year off in style with a bonfire at The Edge of Liberty.

Bring a chair and a drink and something small to burn in effigy to represent either something that happened this year worth celebrating or something you would rather forget.