Our DIY Upcycled Fire Pit

In May, I went into Anchorage for a training. While I was there I excitedly bought three large bags of marshmallows, multiple boxes of graham crackers, and Hershey’s chocolate bars. When Kyle unpacked the tote holding these items he looked at me quizzically, “What is all this for?”

“Smores obviously,” I replied.

“You planning on going camping sometime soon?” he asked.

“Well, no…” I responded, “but can’t we have a fire sometime?”

“Where?” Kyle asked.

“Hmm, I hadn’t figured that out yet,” I said cautiously.

With a sigh from Kyle we ended that conversation.

All summer I thought about the joy of eating smores. But in June it was 70 and sunny out so it didn’t seem like the right time for a fire. Then July came and found me in California, Seattle, and Texas, still not the right time or place for a fire. August arrived and with it came hours of work preparing for the school year. My hopes for a fire and smores were still on hold.

Then last weekend we got a call, “We have a fire pit for you. When is a good time to drop it off?”

A friend’s teenage son had welded together an old tire rim to make a fire pit! It even came with a place to hang a pot from. Just about the neatest thing I’ve ever seen!

We tested it out with some other friends and decided that it was perfect for cooking, but that we could also use a larger one for burning brush and having large groups of people over.

This weekend we got a call, “We have a fire pit for you. When is a good time to drop it off?”

Our friend had welded together a rim from a semi-truck to make us a fire pit!

Then Kyle decided that it was time to make a place to put a fire pit. He started by digging a wide shallow hole. He then collected small rocks and gravel to fill this hole. As he mowed the lawn this summer he found lots of large rocks, so those then were put around the circumference of the pit. Finally, we placed the tire rim fire pit in and voila, we had a wonderful fire pit!

I love the look of this fire pit, but even more I like that it was made from things found in our yard or at the dump.  I also feel really lucky to have friends with welding skills who took the time to make these for us.

We celebrated by having some friends over for smores. After waiting months for those smores, they were some of the best I’ve ever had!