We had planned to spend the afternoon working at a coffeeshop in Bennington today, but we never made it off our land. Early in the morning, Tyler went outside to see if he could get a burn pile going to clear up some of the brush that's been littering our clearing. Before we knew what happened, this innocuous-sounding plan had consumed our entire day.

While Tyler was getting started, I decided to initiate our camper's oven with a batch of flourless peanut butter cookies. Standing in our tiny kitchen, I rolled the dough into balls, made cross-hatch markings on the top of each one with a fork, and popped them in the oven. Twelve minutes later, I had perfectly baked cookies. Success! Our camper oven rules!

When I finished, Tyler was still outside. Eager to see how he was faring, I donned a pair of dirty jeans and my work jacket and went out to help, armed with a tin cup of milk and a plate of cookies in hand. Here is how I found him, standing on top of a halfway-downed tree, chainsaw in hand:

Seeing me emerge with a snack, he nimbly leaped to the ground to greet me, a huge smile plastered on his face. I love seeing my husband so happy!

After we devoured our peanut buttery treats, we got down to business. Together, we gathered, stacked, dragged and rolled all the brush and junk in our clearing to the burn pile.

When everything was cleared away at last, we cleaned and sharpened the chainsaws, put our tools back in the truck, and declared the day a success.

The size of our clearing has practically doubled!