My kids grew up with wood stoves for heating. We have had years of practice building fires.
There was a couple of years that I worried that any one of them might become an arsonist. They were accomplished fire starters from a very early age. Their expertise for emptying ash from wood stoves was not as proficient.
There is a knack to gently shoveling out the ash without sending clouds of it out and about the room and clothing. It takes patience. Patience is not a general endowment for people under the age of 20, especially if you are cold and anxious for some heat.
Then there would be those small trails of ash on the dark green carpet and various partial gray foot prints leading across the ash trail here and there.
It's funny to watch members of our family when camping or vacationing and a fire needs to be built or stoked.
We downed five of our trees last year so are heating house with fireplace insert, though, at the moment, it needs ashes removed! Manana!
Every time I bring in wood or start a fire, I think of my kids. I see them standing by the old wood stove or fireplace warming their backsides.
For more years than I can count my sons would stand together, taking the chill off after coming in from outside-boy-stuff. My oldest son was taller than my younger son every winter. Then, one winter, younger son was taller! He had grown 7 or 8 inches in one summer!
There was the winter that the glass doors of the fireplace imploded and we all laughed our heads off!
Christmas is coming and all the kids and grandchildren will be here. Our parents and great-granddaughter will be here, too. Five generations gathered around the table. Five generations talking about old memories and making new memories.
You can bet I will have a fire going to make the picture complete.
There was a couple of years that I worried that any one of them might become an arsonist. They were accomplished fire starters from a very early age. Their expertise for emptying ash from wood stoves was not as proficient.
There is a knack to gently shoveling out the ash without sending clouds of it out and about the room and clothing. It takes patience. Patience is not a general endowment for people under the age of 20, especially if you are cold and anxious for some heat.
Then there would be those small trails of ash on the dark green carpet and various partial gray foot prints leading across the ash trail here and there.
It's funny to watch members of our family when camping or vacationing and a fire needs to be built or stoked.
We downed five of our trees last year so are heating house with fireplace insert, though, at the moment, it needs ashes removed! Manana!
Every time I bring in wood or start a fire, I think of my kids. I see them standing by the old wood stove or fireplace warming their backsides.
For more years than I can count my sons would stand together, taking the chill off after coming in from outside-boy-stuff. My oldest son was taller than my younger son every winter. Then, one winter, younger son was taller! He had grown 7 or 8 inches in one summer!
There was the winter that the glass doors of the fireplace imploded and we all laughed our heads off!
Christmas is coming and all the kids and grandchildren will be here. Our parents and great-granddaughter will be here, too. Five generations gathered around the table. Five generations talking about old memories and making new memories.
You can bet I will have a fire going to make the picture complete.
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