Noticing Newbies

I, like some people, am a contradiction.

While working through winter on a farm in a remote northern part of Canada, the only warmth was wood.
This particular woodstove was attached to a furnace in the basement of the farmhouse. You needed only build a fire and it did the rest. And it did it quickly.

The wood was the hard part. Literally. Chainsaw, ax, carry inside. A great, loud, somewhat dangerous workout to be sure. I had tried to avoid using the chainsaw but quickly realized any other option was a waste of energy.

Life was rural and rough but not uncomfortable.

My desire for a pedicure lead to the need for a fire. I’ve never had one done by anyone but myself.

We were close to Spring and running out of cut cords of wood.
Following a semi-serious suggestion, I ventured outside to push some old fence posts over and “use them”. They slid easily in the snow and after I had about a dozen across the fields to the porch, I fired up the chainsaw to cut them into stove size pieces.

It ran out of gas just as I had finished the last cut! One ax blow split each piece, and into the stove they went.

After all of this, I sat in a warm room to clip and file my nails. The red paint dried in no time.

Pride may be a problem when it “comes before the fall”.

It can also be a solution when it comes after the winter.