Yesterday evening we hauled and stacked firewood for hours. We watched the moon come up over the mountain on the other side of the river from our house (and I attempted to capture it on camera.) We came in when it got dark. We are nowhere close to being “prepared” when it comes to firewood this year, but it sure felt good to get some in the woodshed for the winter. Some of it is split and under cover, some of it is not yet cured and is stacked in rounds until it’s ready. Last year we were able to get enough wood from this land to make it through most of the winter. That was really wonderful. This year we’ve been purchasing some from neighbors, bit by bit as we can afford it. Growing up, we had warmth with the click of a switch. And that does sound really nice sometimes. But I really love the warmth of the woodstove and appreciate the exercise I get from hauling and stacking it. Plus we dry our clothes by the woodstove (and outside on the line when it’s sunny) so we haven’t needed a dryer in many years, which has worked really well for us. We appreciate technology, to be sure, and pick what works for us, but some things we are quite happy to live without.

Last week Jeff climbed on the roof and cleaned out the chimney. The leaves are falling, the nights are getting colder, it feels like fall. Lately our days have been so warm you can be out in the sun and swear it’s summer still, but the nights tell us better. I love the amber color of the leaves that fall from the beech tree out front. I’ve been watching the chipmunks from the kitchen window and told Jeff I thought they were eating the beech nuts. I looked it up, and sure enough, they love them. Oh, and Jeff came in this morning and said “there’s a beautiful spiderweb along the front fence that you could take a picture of if you’d like.” I did just that.