wintertime

Saturday.

Tuesday the temps here at home and there at work were highs in the mid-seventies, lows in the upper forties.

Same Wednesday.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and the temperature began to drop. Early in the morning th'Mr & the neighbor Mike went to get a tree that had been leaning across the entrance to our family graveyard for a while. Hickory, I think. Nice firewood.

Yesterday (Friday) when I got up it was flurrying, continued to flurry off & on all day; th'Mr & I pulled the wood splitter our from the barn and put in a new spark plug. Tried to start it. Th'neighbor came & blew in the gas tank (clogged fuel line?) and got it started, but it's running just on "choke" setting; he'll have to look it over today.

Last night th'Mr built our first fire of the season.

This morning I've spent relearning how to properly feed this new woodstove (the old one was easy: shove the wood in.) Every year I go through this, first mistakenly just shoving in the wood in the order I pick it up. After a while the fan goes out. I open the damper, then open the door. Look at the wood. Realize I ought to rearrange it for better air flow. Do that, then sit and wait for an hour or more till it finally gets going again and the circulation fan kicks on.

This morning I spent that "hour or more" going through the bills and paperwork that pile up on my desk whenever I'm not here to deal with them frequently. What began as a scary stack of paper turned out to be not too bad after all - when all was done and rearranged I had only two small stacks, a fist full of glossies for the trash, and a huge stack of scrap paper for the fire :)

Which I did: fed the fire with it, and the fan finally, gratifyingly, kicked on.

My belated Thanksgiving:
That th'Mr & I are alive, together, and healthy.
That we live in a 90-year-old farmhouse that's not too expensive in upkeep.
That little things like burning our paper and cardboard to keep them out of the landfill, and composting (ditto), give me pleasure.
That we heat with wood when it's coldest, keeping the electric for "backup."
That we have great neighbors, who are always glad to help.
That cats keep our laps warm by day and our feet warm by night.
That the view out my back window includes nobody's land but our own.
That to the south our land is bordered by National Forest, to the east and west by great neighbors, and to the north "town," and the interstate to "city" are just 10 minutes away.
That there's an interstate rest area between us and a mall, in every direction.
That I have a decent job and the respect of my coworkers.
That people seem to like me (I still can't figure that one out).
That there is yarn.