Yes, good memories.
For the first ten years or so that we lived in this house, our only heat was from a wood stove. All our fuel came from our own woods. We would both go out, even in heavy snow storms, to collect and chop wood, and our son would gather kindling. Sometimes the Men would go out and the Lady would stay in the house and make supper or hot chocolate.
When our landlord, from whom we later bought the house, decided to add a gas furnace and a thermostat (not at our request; but he'd become a friend, and I think he just didn't like the idea of our "roughing it" like that), it was a great luxury, but we really were acutely aware that something wonderful had ended. We'd exchanged convenience for something that was sometimes grueling, but was more often exhilarating. There's no What Is The Meaning Of It All about chopping wood to keep your family warm. The reason is clear, the reward is immediate.
We hardly ever got well ahead, so sometimes we'd be out in blizzards foraging like idiots for wood in the deep snow and laughing. Once N was away and there was a blizzard and he was delayed and I was home with our son and a new baby and it got dark, and I'm afraid of the dark so couldn't have gone out to look for fuel even if it had been reasonable to do that alone, in the dark, in a blizzard, and finally all the wood stacked in the house and on the porch was gone. Around the time I was starting seriously to eye the tables and chairs and heft the hatchet, N pulled into the drive with a friend who had chains on his tires (we live on a steep hill) and a car full of wood.
Now we burn wood during the day, but at night, we can set the thermostat and not wake up with the water in the toilet bowl frozen. |
