Where do I go to relax in the summer? The answer is my patio in my backyard. It’s like a sanctuary to me. It’s a simple patio, nothing fancy. I don’t have a lake home or camper, just my simple patio to sit and enjoy the outdoors and unwind. It is just perfect.

We bought our patio furniture about ten years ago and it still looks like the day we bought it. A large table with six chairs. Two of the chairs swivel and they are my favorite. I always sit in them. My mornings in the summer are spent sitting in my swivel chair and doing my morning devotions. I have KTIS Christian Radio out of the Cities playing on my phone while reading a devotion and my Bible. There is something different about praying outside than inside, and I don’t know what it is. Maybe because you are out in nature amongst the trees, birds and the blue sky. Mornings in the summer are special to me, mostly because I get to sit on my patio.

I also have a grill and a firepit on my patio. We use our grill a lot during the summer. I must be a simple person, because my grill is just a simple grill with two burners and no upper rack. My favorite meat to grill is a steak, then brats, pork chops and beef or chicken Kobobs. Sitting in my swivel chair, grilling and visiting with my wife after a day of work on our patio is my favorite part of the day. Sometimes our neighbors, which happen to be Roxie’s sister, Kathy and her husband, Larry come over and sit with us. They are the best neighbors.

This year we bought a new firepit. I had to put it together last month and doing that wasn’t much fun. I hate assembling things. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just don’t like doing it because something will always go wrong. The box read “Easy Assembly.” Put together in under 30 minutes! Hahaha. That didn’t happen!. After I assembled it, I went and bought some wood and a few fire starters. I couldn’t wait to have our first campfire.

The other day we had heavy rain and hail and our simple patio was a mess with broken tree branches and leaves from the wind and hail. The next day the weather was absolutely perfect, temps in the 70’s and no wind. We grilled hamburgers and sat outside and ate and enjoyed the evening on our patio. Roxie loves to play with fire and I am not allowed to touch the firepit anymore. A few years ago I created an inferno in our backyard firepit and my wife wasn’t too happy with me and I was told to never start a fire again. I will admit, she does a much better job than me at starting fires in the firepit. Anyways, we had a really nice evening sitting on our patio enjoying our little fire.

• 

• 

• 

• 

There are so many other nice things about my patio, I have a squirrel friend that will show up once in a while and play with me. A friend made me a corn feeder for the squirrel and I hung that in the tree and he already eats off of it. I have large rabbits in my backyard that I enjoy watching. Kathy, my sister in law, next door does a great job with flowers and plants and make her backyard look so nice. Roxie decorates our backyard with flowers and statues which make our patio look very nice as well. I love it when my grandchildren come over and we spend time on the patio. I could go on and on about how much I love sitting on my simple patio in the summer. I have plenty of chairs and you are very welcome to join me anytime.