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.