Fire

This little fire raised the house temperature five degrees. I love our wood burning stove!

The colder-than-normal winter last year motivated us to buy and install a wood burning stove when they went on clearance in the spring. Though Jack is able to whip up a blazing fire in a matter of seconds (being an Eagle Scout has served us well!), I don’t have the gift of pyromania. I took the opportunity to try–again–yesterday, realizing Jack wasn’t going to have time on those chilly winter mornings to start a fire before leaving for work. So, I cleaned out the ashes, arranged the wood and about ten minutes later, gave up. I went to work on our closet to blow off steam (seriously, why is wood so dang hard to light on fire?), came back to find some glowing embers and with a couple deep breaths (which I can accredit to playing the tuba for several years, haha!), blew the embers into a cheerful, warm fire.