when the cold winds blow

When it's 15°F, -2°F wind chill (-10°C, -19°C wind chill) like today, we keep the wood stove blazing. We also have a furnace that burns propane, but our goal is to keep the heat turned down in the rest of the house when we're in the family room where the wood stove is.

We were excited to receive a bill for renting the propane tank, because that means we used less than 700 gallons for one year (you have to pay rental for the tank only if you burn less than 700 gallons annually).

The building on the right here is the corncrib, where we store firewood, not corn.

This morning I couldn't get the logs to light in the wood stove. They glowed, but they wouldn't blaze. Don was sleeping, and I was determined to do this myself. Did I have the logs too close together? Too far apart?

See this copper cauldron with logs in it? It's from our days in İstanbul, when Don sold copper to the U.S.

Bishop joined me outside, after she ran out of the garage where she spent the night on her heated bed (she is a barn cat; believe me, she loves her outdoor life. Have I told you she is a marvelous huntress?) She looks fat, but that is all winter coat. Every night when I'm in the hot tub, she comes to my corner and nuzzles and cuddles with me, even though my hand is wet and it gets her fur icy after a few minutes in the frigid air. We love each other.

We went to the woodshed and piled up the old blue plastic sled with our load. I use "we" loosely. I loaded while Bishop squirmed around in the snow.

We load up the sled every two or three days, depending on how much we're home.

When Don was laid up after shoulder surgery, I was the sole firewood gatherer.

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Now he's using his arm very well, gathering wood and doing other things that don't require heavy lifting. So we are back to sharing this task.

The fire finally blazed. We're hibernating in our warm house this weekend.