Fireside Chat

Winter season is upon us at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  It has been cold and wet for days now and the ground is a saturated, muddy mess.  It gets dark by 5:15 or so and I can't get a doggone thing done around the place until the weekend.  So much for the complaining.

Yesterday evening when I got home from work, I was feeling real sorry for the cows and was in the process of putting out a fresh bale of hay for them when Daisy, Rosie, and Maggie all escaped through the opened gate.  They ran with reckless abandon through the neighbor's yards in search of grass to eat.  They wouldn't listen and would run from me when I got near them.  I ran and got Tricia to come help me round them up and push them back into the pasture.  It was a harrowing experience for a while as they were heading toward a busy road.   Fortunately we were able to get them back in.

By the time I got back inside the house, I was wet and cold.  It was time to get the fireplace blazing. Fortunately, when the big water oak tree in the front yard died, we were able to get several years' inventory of firewood put away.  I had Benjamin bring a wagon load full to stack by the french doors in the back so it stays dry.

Firewood for the winter

It only took a few pieces of heart pine kindling and some dry oak and we had the fire started.  I like to sit by the fireplace and shell pecans.  For some reason, that is very relaxing to me.  We also like to lay out blankets by the fire and watch movies on these cold, rainy evenings.  We watched Jeremiah Johnson tonight.

The andirons in our fireplace were from my Mom's Great Aunt and Uncle's house.  I always like to use old things with some history to them.

 A cozy fire

The cold rain persisted for days.  The photo doesn't really convey how miserable it is out there.

This next photo tells the story though.  It is so lousy out there that Big Boy (the dog) and Christie (the cat) are at total peace with one another on the back patio, when they are natural enemies.  Something about a dry patio blocking the north winds that made them set aside their differences and get along for the moment.  It made me immediately think of Isaiah 11:6-7 in which Isaiah is talking about our Lord's Millennial reign "The wolf will lie down with the lamb and the leopard with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. Also the cow and the bear will graze and the lion will eat straw like the ox."

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Thankfully we're inside with family enjoying a cozy evening by a roaring fire.  

A Cozy Fire

In addition to shelling pecans, it is about time to pull out the seed catalogs, take inventory of the seed varieties we saved, and begin planning the Spring Garden.  Life is Good!