The Woodshed

Jeff has the woodshed piled high and ready for the colder season that has just begun in Michigan. He makes a great subject because he'll pose when I need him to. :D The ambience of this photo nails Jeff to the T. This is how I see him often in the winter months -hauling out more and more wood in the lantern light glow as those huge wood stacks begin to dwindle, and it's a wish and a prayer we have enough cut wood for the entire cold season.

By early spring Jeff will declare he is not hauling ONE more load in with the tattered carriers while slipping on ice here and there. It does take a lot of it to keep the house above 6o degrees during the below zero times during winter. But our wood resources are constantly replacing themselves and Jeff selectively cuts down trees for firewood.

Quite frankly, we can't afford to heat with natural gas. It's not in the budget. Who can nowadays??? And we prefer living simply when it comes down to it. That way we depend on ourselves for our heat and not on the up and down economy and the matter of gas prices jumping because somebody sneezed. We're very cozy.

You might be asking by now what my job is in the winter? Since I have serious carpal tunnel and am prone to slip and break bones, I head up the kindling seeking. That's a tough job when it's been sleeting for days and the branches are soaked and the snow is two feet deep. None of this heating process is easy. We do gather some sticks ahead but would need a whole other shed for storage of it and that isn't going to happen.

Of course the blessing to all of this is sitting in front of the golden licking flames of the woodstove with your spouse and enjoying the heat that doesn't come from a furnace. :D

Have a super day. :D

Hugs, JJ (Nancy)