This is not what I would prefer for an October fall day. Following a half inch of rain during the night the gray skies settled in for the entire day. Dennis’ son-in-law made short work of the large limbs that had gone down several days ago. Tom does not pick up what his chainsaw has cut. We are thankful for what he does do. What was left was a mess of small twigs. By noon we had everything loaded and ready to take to the tree dump. You cannot tell by the looks of the backyard that we had to play lumberjacks today.
Decades ago all of the cut up Maple would have found its way stacked into the machine shed to dry for the wood furnace that was in the farm home of my parents. There was no duct work in the farm house. In the center of the living room floor was a metal grate four feet square. Whatever heat the wood furnace could generate was felt coming up through that grate. There was also a grate in the floor of the second floor to take whatever heat could rise. That was the total heat source for our bedrooms.
Do I feel guilty when our forced air furnace brings heat from various heat registers throughout our home via duct work? No. I enjoy all the memories of times past. I enjoy our comfortable home without all the labor intensity of those days of old. Yup . . . I am spoiled.