Heart Wood

Saturday Don spent an hour or so cutting wood for our wood burning stove. Most weekends he finds a downed tree or two, or -- more preferably -- a dead tree that’s still standing, because it is already perfectly seasoned.

He strikes up his chain saw, cuts the tree into lengths that just fit into our tiny wood stove, loads up a blue plastic sled, pulls it up to the shed (former corn crib in our farm's true farming days), unloads and stacks it, then pulls the last sled load to the garage for easy armloads during the week. Needless to say, the free energy source right on our property has been very welcome this winter with sky-high heating bills, helping to supplement the gas furnace. We probably have enough dead wood to last a few years.

I was in the house piddling around, and Don came in from cutting wood with this Valentine, a half-inch slice of an elm tree (it really is ONE piece). I love how it resembles a human heart, even with left and right ventricles. Many other images come to mind: owl eyes, ears. What do you see?

Do you see my love for this man?