Athlete of the Week

Spring?

Not to be outdone by Joseph and Emily's postings of signs of spring, here is proof that Wisconsin does have other seasons than winter. This is in one of our flower beds.

If you turn around, though, and look at our garden spot, here's what you'll see.

I guess spring is on it's way, but we won't be planting anything very soon.

We were awakened at 6 am this morning by the sound of the snowplow out on the road. When I got up, this is what it looked like:

I realize that there are only so many posts about snow and bad weather that can possibly be interesting to anyone, but it's getting to be a big, big pain. Normally, spring snow is not much of a problem. It melts right away. But we still have some of the original snow from December 1st on our back lawn!

It's April 12, for heaven's sake.

I've been thinking a lot about wood lately. Wood is a big deal here in the "northwoods" of Wisconsin. A lot of the economy revolves around wood, including Rene's job (they use byproducts of papermaking to make their products.) People here love trees--if you cut a tree down in your yard, it's just awful, even when it needs to be cut down. Lots of homes are practically buried in woods, so much so that sunlight can hardly get in. In fact, that's one of my complaints about our yard right now--too many trees and not enough light. But the natives here love that--they say it makes them feel safe and secure.

Pretty much everybody around here has some kind of a fireplace. I know that some of them aren't even wood-burning, but many, many are. And consequently, lots of people have big woodpiles near their homes. I've discovered that heating with wood is a labor intensive way to heat your house. We have a gas furnace, but we keep the thermostat set pretty low, so when we feel cold, we build a fire in the fireplace. To have wood to burn, someone has to cut down the tree, cut off all the little branches, cut the trunk and bigger pieces into fireplace size logs, carry them over to the woodpile, split them, stack them, and cover them. When a fire is wanted, someone has to go out and carry in a bunch of wood. And it takes quite a bit to keep a decent fire going. We usually only have a fire in the evenings, but when it's really cold (as in below zero), we try to keep a fire going all the time.

And burning wood is a pretty dirty endeavor. The wood is dirty, so carrying it makes you dirty; when you stack it, whether in the woodpile or near the fireplace, little chunks of bark and dirt fall off, making a mess; and burning wood makes a lot of dust and smoke that you have to eventually clean up. Then you have to clean out and haul away the ashes.

My point in all this is that our ancestors were really something. They used wood to heat everything, not just to warm up when it's chilly. I can imagine that getting and keeping enough wood to always have some to heat and cook with was a major preoccupation. And that was only one of their jobs to be able to survive. My hat's off to those hardy souls!

Because yesterday and today are nasty here (cold and snowy), I am going to offer a little prize to whoever is the closest to guessing the last day when we will have a fire in our fireplace. And you better not guess a date before next week, because we're expecting 3-5 inches tonight and it's supposed to be snowy all week. And here's a hint: the prize will be something to do with this post.

Hey, check out this link: http://www.yahoo.com/s/851426 . This is a guy after my own heart. I imagine Emily would like him, too.

Last night while the men were at the Priesthood session of conference, I went with some friends to see The 5 Browns. If you don't know who they are, they are 5 siblings who all went to Juilliard and they play 5 pianos together. Oh, they're also LDS. Here's a photo:




It was a little pricey, but worth it. They were very good and also pretty entertaining. (Okay, not as entertaining as Paul and Preston playing together, but pretty good.) My personal favorite was "Fantasia on "Dives and Lazarus". Despite the fancy title, it was really "If You Could Hie to Kolob", with a little "Be Still, My Soul" thrown in as a duet at the end. I also liked one that was a homage to Jerry Lee Lewis (great balls of fire!) that was played by one of the boys. He played with his hands, his elbows, and even his feet.

Just think, if you all had practiced a little harder, it could have been The Six Scoresbys and you could be supporting us now (plus paying back all the big-time school loans to go to the Juilliard.)