Hauling Wood

The other week my good friend Cal and his wife drove over a load of wood for our future firepit. The kids got out the wheelbarrow and we all worked at stacking it behind the shed and then covering it to keep out the rain and (eventually) snow. Doing this took me back to the farm and hauling wood during the winter. If my sister and I didn't haul the wood in everyday, our house wouldn't be heated. On the farm, we had two wood stoves for heat and they needed new fuel daily. It didn't occur to me how important our job was then-- it was just something we did to contribute to the family-- and it kept us busy, which was a good thing!

Watching my sons move wood with their arms and sometimes a wheelbarrow gave me a glimpse of what it would have been like for my parents to see Kati and me endeavoring to get the job done. Hauling wood gives one an immediate sense of accomplishment; you can see what you have done in a tangible way. We are "only" going to use our firewood for entertainment purposes, not as a necessity, but we will all feel again that sense of accomplishment when we are able to put a fire together and know we had a hand in taking care of the resources we will use.

The most credit, of course, should go to my friend Cal. Hauling the wood is no comparison to finding it, cutting it down and splitting it. Which makes me think about all of the work that my dad put in to making sure we had what we needed. He made our job easy-- for all the grumbling we may have done on cold winter days about carrying wood, we were not responsible for getting it ready to carry. My dad was the kind of man who did what needed doing. He never once referred to all of the time and effort in the hot days and the cold days that he put in getting that wood ready. He was a man who didn't need proof from others about his worth; he created his own worth-- with his own hands.

The Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!

One of the fondest memories I have of the Fourth was in 1976. In honor of the Bicentennial, our 4-H Club entered a float into the annual Spooner Fourth of July Parade. My mother sewed Prairie Dresses and Bonnets for my twin sister and me. She even sewed a set for two of our dolls. We rode in the float on some bales of hay and represented the prairie settlers that went out West to farm the land.

I admire my mother in that she sewed and did home "crafts". I admire anyone who takes the time to develop a skill like sewing, crocheting, knitting, etc. It was this use of "home" skills that helped families in the early days of this country. They are skills that aren't generally seen in most households now that we have commercial companies that will make quilts, clothing and other necessities for us and often times at a fraction of the cost of doing it ourselves. Because of my mother and other women I know who are like her, I own a sewing machine. I love that I have one ready in case I decide to sew a pillow or hem a tablecloth. I know I want to carve out some time to do more sewing and to develop more skills in that area. And to use those skills to help me have the freedom to create what I want and not necessarily use only what's available.

Happy Birthday, America!

Farmville Reality

All right, I admit it. I play Farmville. If you are my Facebook friend, you already know this. Lately, I've been playing a bit more than usual. I am off for the summer, and I can't seem to resist planting and growing crops and harvesting XP. Though I would consider myself mildy into the game, I can't help but see Farmville around me. For the past couple of days, the kids and I will be driving and I'll see a picturesque house or tree and my immediate reaction is "Farmville". The kids, keeping it real, remind me that Farmville is actually copying real life, not the other way around. Still, it's really interesting for me to see a grove of trees, different in height, shape and coloring and think about Farmville and its different trees. Or, take this rock that I noticed in one of my gardens:

It looks just like a Farmville rock that I have:

I know this makes it seem like I may be a bit over-obsessed, but I thought it was interesting that I was making comparisons between what I see in life and on Farmville. I wonder if people do a similar thing if they play World of Warcraft or The Sims or Second Life. I do know that if farming in real life was as easy as it is in Farmville, we could take care of hunger in the world. We'd have more barnraisings and crop growing together, more interesting looking animals and an easy way to store it all when we wanted to change things up!