First Fire


Friday night I built the first fire of this season. First pine shavings, then pine sticks, then locust and hickory bark, then oak. Beth and Alban and I sat next to the stove while we ate roasted pepper and tomato soup and prosage brunch burgers. Mmmm. I brought the fireplace tools down from the tool shed today. A shop brush, a metal dustpan, an old coal scoop and a poker I made several years ago. They are all in their places now. When I go outside I enjoy the smell of woodsmoke. Thanks to Tim and his boys my firewood is all stacked up and ready. I have a dead chestnut oak below the house that I will cut up and carry up after Christmas. I have plenty of wood to last well beyond that time. It is a good feeling. It is not time yet for an all day fire, just a quick fire for breakfast and another for supper. I am burning the bark that Papa Haskins and Grandpa Weir stacked up. It is perfect for this purpose.