Counting My Blessings #5: Wood

I love wood heat. When I am chilled or wet to the bone there is nothing like wood heat to warm me up. Last summer we fell numerous trees on our property and I feel blessed that we have wood that can provide us warmth through the winter. JEJ just fell four more trees today and they will be added to the other wood to provide a winter supply of warmth. We have two wood stoves inside the house to keep both ends of the house warm. I love sitting in front of a fire as much as Kit does.
Sitting out in the gazebo in the garden is even more pleasant when we have a fire built in our fireplace outside. It may not be enough to keep us warm in November, but it does provide a coziness as we enjoy the garden moving into hibernation.

Good-bye Spokesman-Review... A Tradition Leaving My Home

I was shocked and saddened when I opened a letter last night from the Spokesman-Review newspaper. As of December 1st I will no long have a paper delivered to my home. This is another of the cuts the paper has made recently. Since the first week I moved back to the Inland Empire in 1994 I have received a SR each and every day in my yellow newspaper box. I read Huckleberries online numerous times in a day. I also read lots of other news sources online, but I am a traditionalist. I like the print copy. I like to look at the ads and cut out recipes. I also like seeing stories in print. I realize I get a free online subscription for a year, but it just won't be the same. I grew up with my dad reading the paper cover to cover each day. My brother spent many hours studying sports stats. Routinely Mom cut out Dorothy Dean recipes that are still in her recipe drawer. I have yellowed copies of my grandmother's obituary.

I am also bothered by the fact that our school won't have any print copies in the library or in classrooms for students to read. Students love the internet, but if a copy of a newspaper is on the table, they are more likely to read it. As I remove my box from my driveway it will the end of era that started when I began to read. We will still get the news. I can download recipes. I can drive to a bigger town to get the Sunday ads, but we won't have a newspaper.

I will also put away our recycle box and figure out another way to start our morning fires.