Prompt #5 Before and After

Sticking to the guidelines today. After all, the prompts are merely suggestions not rules. My issues of authority surfacing again!

Many items come to mind. I could go historical and do the automobile, refrigerator, dish washer, gas stove. I could describe my yard before and after the raised beds or the aquaponic system I am learning to operate. I could describe the canner and go into my attempts to remove myself from the corporate food chain and chemicals in my own small way. Yet I've written about these previously.

I am lead to the wood stove! I love heating with wood. I'm not totally sure it lowers the heating costs if we don't manage to obtain free wood which we have had a lot of! We've cut, shopped and split several driveways full of wood. Rest in peace downed ash, maple, oak, walnut and Osage. We burned the Bradford Pear that didn't survive the four tornado day a couple of years ago. But the money to rent the splitter and gasoline and transportation...Am I saving resources? The process of me or anyone getting the wood to the point of use and the smokey by-product wafting into the air has to factor in. There is an environmental cost for everything. I feel like the burning of the deceased trees is a part of speeded up recycling!

I feel strong when operating the splitter. It's fun! And hard work. I feel strong lifting and stacking wood. I feel strong carrying wood even though I carry only 3-4 logs at a time. Carrying wood forces me to get outside in the cold, damp, snow, fog, ice. so I am still connected with the outside when the windows are shut and the daylight is in short supply. And I am moving. I am stretching and using my body.

I cook soups and veggies atop the stove. Cast iron. I dry our clothes on racks in front of the stove. I sit and stare, my feet resting on the brick foundation and browse seed catalogues and read.

The whirr and hum of the furnace is replaced by wood crackling and popping as the fire dances life. The heart light glowing from the center of my house.