That's One Amazing Log!

     Its Spring!  Well, almost, anyway.  The snow is almost gone and I can see dirt.  Dirt, dirt, dirt.  I never thought I'd be so happy to see dirt.  We are s'posed to have rain tonight, turning to snow.  I'm thrilled.  NOT!  Ah, well.  Maybe this is the last-ditch effort of Mother Nature for this year's winter blast, ya' think?  I surely hope so.  I love winter, but I am waaaaaaaaay tired of struggling to get out of my driveway.

     Wanna' hear somethin' funny?  We have a woodburning stove.  We've been very thankful for it, since this is how we've kept warm, this winter.  Well, its still kinda' chilly, so of course, we're still burning wood.  Running dangerously low, so I really hope we will get to stop soon.  I mean, we will get to stop burning wood on accounta' we're about to run out.  But I mean, I hope the weather cooperates so we can stop burning wood 'cause we wanna' and not because we hafta', ya' know?

     Anyway, the night before last we put the largest piece of wood we could into the stove.  Its one of those old-fashioned cookstoves with the little shelf.  To load the wood, we lift two little round parts and a center piece, all of which keep the fire from letting smoke into the room.  So we loaded this piece of wood, about a foot and a half long and a little bigger around than a large coffee can.  Since there were coals left-over from the previous sticks of wood, it wasn't necessary to go through the steps of starting a fire under the new wood... we thought.

     Naturally, we did add a little bit of extra paper to the coals, just to be sure.  After we were sure the fire was going good, we went upstairs; each to our own office to write.  That's what we enjoy doing, writing.  In about an hour, we heard the sound of treats and drinks, calling our names.  Back downstairs and, as long as we were there, anyway, we checked the stove to see if more wood was needed.  More wood was NOT necessary because that one log was just setting there.  NOT burning.

     Now, I could stretch this story out for forty years and forty nights, giving you every little detail during my long and ridiculous night-fight with the woodstove.  I don't wanna' do that, though, on accounta' you might get bored and just up and leave.  So I'm gonna' give you the shorter version.

     Eight times, throughout the night, I poked and prodded, stabbed and fed that woodstove with everything I could think of to get that fire going.  I am not one to use ugly names, but I can tell you, I was sorely tempted to give that stove and/or that log a whole new vocabulary.  When my good hubby-buddy woke up, it was his turn to play at keeping the stove lit.

     So, here's the short version (finally?).  Thirty-one hours ago, we started burning that log.  It burned so slowly (yes, it actually burned the whole night and day) that there are still, now, embers from that same log.  I have never seen a log burn that slowly.  If you ask me, that's something of a miracle.  After all, we're running out of wood and tonight its gonna' snow.  Wouldn't you say that's a miracle?  Stay warm and 'til the next time, keep a hug on.

Yaya