Firewood

I burned a fire in the stove today.  Although there was certainly a slight nip to the North Shore air tonight; it is not cold.  I lit the fire to remind myself that this work is worth it.  The fire is burning to remind myself that my efforts, which have at times beat me to outright physical disrepair, is a commodity that will burn long and keep us warm all winter.

I'm not minimizing the situation.  The nights are getting longer and colder.  Most recent nights we've been honestly burning the stove to keep warm.

It's true: winter is coming.  To northerners this time of the year means but one thing; it's a time of chopping wood.  Doting wool and fleece for the first time since spring is occasion enough to dust off the splitting maul and get to work.  My job this fall is simple: split 3 cords of birch and one cord of poplar.  This should be enough wood to burn in our stove for the winter.

Splitting, however, is the last step in processing firewood.  One can pay to get their wood supply delivered split.  I for one am that that type of person (at least while I'm young) to do it themselves.  To me splitting wood has simply become another chore that I do that takes my mind off of the "normal" life qualms.  It gives me an opportunity to exert energy on something that doesn't think or feel or has the ability to tell me off.  In turn, I'm able to simply beat the snot out of it.  It's great anger management!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not an angry person.  Processing wood is just another activity that helps me direct the rest of my constructive energy towards the things in my life that merit it.

On the physical level, there's an old saying that processing firewood warms you twice.  I agree.  In fact I'd say that it warms you five times: felling, bucking, splitting, stacking, and burning.