How We Came Up With the Name “Flamekissed”

We’ve always had a habit of naming things based on experience.

Years ago, I surprised Joy with a pet rabbit. Unfortunately, the dogs got it. We got another rabbit, named it, and the dogs got that one too. Finally, I brought home another rabbit and decided to name it “Dog Food.” Oddly enough, that rabbit lived a long, happy life.

Turns out, the same logic applied to fire.

After buying our new house, I was out cleaning up the property with a small bulldozer while the goats grazed along the fence lines. I had a small burn pile going and ran into town for a bit. When I came back, the fire had spread right up to the edge of the barn and followed the goats’ path around the fence line. We lived in a neighborhood, so that got exciting in a hurry. That was fire number one.

Fire number two happened while Joy and I were out trail riding. My parents were watching the kids, and Dad had been cleaning up around the property and burning brush. The fire had been out for days, but one of those dry October cold fronts rolled through, the humidity dropped, and somehow it reignited. By the time we got home, everything between the barn and the house was burning — hay bales, a greenhouse, and sadly, we even lost some doves.

The third fire started from ashes cleaned out of our wood-burning stove. The fire had been out for several days, and with a light rain falling, it seemed harmless enough. Joy emptied the ashes into a plastic bucket on the back steps of our wooden deck before heading to town. While she was gone, the heat melted the bucket and caught the steps on fire.

After three fires, we figured maybe it was time to try the rabbit strategy again.

So we named the business “Flamekissed” — hopeful that, just like Dog Food the rabbit, naming it would finally put an end to our run of bad luck with fire.

And thankfully, so far, it has.