Saturday, March 04, 2017

It ain't over 'till it's over

But I'm ready. I'm anxiously awaiting the end of fire season. So far, in the last couple of weeks, I've bruised my shin when a piece of a log I was splitting went flying, I've burned a painful hole in one of my knuckles while adding a log to the hot fire, and most of my fingers are sore from frequent wood splinters. I'm sick of splitting logs in the cold rain; I'm tired of lugging a heavy sack of logs up the stairs every day. I've also had it with emptying the cold ashes every morning and cleaning up the fine layer of ash that covers everything near the stove.

A section of grape vine trunk covered by dead woody ivy stems. Burnable!

It's that time of year. I really enjoy the beginning of fire season, in the fall, when the leaves are turning and the holidays are approaching. The daily fire is warm and pretty. But the fun wears off in February and by March it's just a chore. It'll be over soon. Vivement le printemps !

11 comments:

  1. Absolutely!
    The cosiness of the real fire gradually turns to resentment of the chore as we yearn for sunshine and warmth.

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  2. Ouch to the idyllic and peaceful country life. I guess your days as a hand model are over.

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  3. Obviously not here but in a previous house we a gas fired coal fire in a Victorian fireplace and that was really good, in addition to the standard air con heating, but we didn't use it every night.....weekends and visitors etc. Once the wind blew the chimney damper wide open and the mantle got a bit scorched from the fierce heat. Like women as they become old suddenly refuse to cook meals, especially Christmas dinner, for their families, one year you will simply say, I am not cutting up the wood anymore. Or it could be when when the pan of ashes blows back in your face.

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  4. IMHO the only solution is to get rid of the wood-burning stove altogether. All those painful chores are gone magically. LOL

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  5. Too much of anything is....too much. Hope you see warm blue skies soon.

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  6. Ha! The truth behind the idyllic daily views of Life In Saint-Aignan LOL.

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  7. I'm quite sure in six month time you'll be longing back for that stove again, Walt :-)!

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  8. jean, I sure am ready for sunshine and warmth!

    mitch, well, except that they had never really started... lol.

    andrew, I think about that, but so far I'm not ready to give it all up. So far.

    melinda, probably not. I looked into that a while back, but got nowhere. The ones I knew in the US didn't produce much heat, anyway.

    chm, hahaha!

    gosia, :)

    chris, me too!

    judy, ah, yes. The grass is always greener...

    jan, probably. Well, longing may not be the right word. ;)

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  9. Oh ar, I sympathise, having been brought up in a tall thin Victorian house with no central heating, draughty windows and coal fires that needed to be replenished from scuttles lugged down two floors to the cellar and up again. Oh the joy of gas fires when my parents finally started to see sense......

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