I am a lousy firestarter.
We heat with wood, so this is a problem.
After ski touring today, I came home wanting to cuddle the dogs and watch a movie and maybe take a nap, but there is no comfort in doing so next to a cold, dark woodstove.
My poor husband was at a ski demo all day and a clinic this evening, so for him to come home to a cold, dark house would be terribly unfair. I have to figure out why this wood won't catch (it's dry, pitchy pine; it's charring without burning makes no sense) before he comes home.
That said, it's pretty comfortable here on the couch, Arnie on one side, Red on the other. Their warm furry bodies making a dent in the cold. We're watching the Namesake, based on the book of the same name, one of my favorites. It was originally a short story, which the author, the brilliant Jhumpa Lahiri, expanded into her second book. If you haven't read her stuff, I permit you to stop reading my blog for the time it takes you to track it down. Then you have to come back.
That's all I have for you tonight. I'm happy, very content with two fun days in the mountains, and it's hard to write when I'm happy. It's easy to upload videos of singing muppets, but it's hard to write in a voice I like. It sounds, to me, too braggy or inauthentic. I'm going to work on it, but now, I'm going to try to light another fire.
3 comments:
Use some "Scout Juice" (gasoline). That should get it, and the rest of your house to burst into flames.
Hasn't B-Rad taught you the fire starter technique? First you build two "walls" out of logs. Arrange then pointing front to back with the flue hole in between. Pile crumpled up newspaper between the walls, then add a "roof" to the walls by placing logs horizontally over the walls.
Light the paper, then watch your little house burn down. Very satisfying.
Or you can use chainsaw dust soaked with kerosene. Remember that flame/heat rises, so put it down low and let the flames leap upwards in a flickering burst of joy to ignite the eagerly awaiting pitchy pine.
Jhumpa Lahiri is one of those writers who, no matter how many times I read the same story, leaves me breathless.
Nothing wrong with sounding happy!
I suck at starting fires too, and we also heat with wood, but tonight for the first time in ages I got it on the first try. Whoohoo! It's in the 30s here, and this morning it snowed in my front yard. I know that doesn't sound unusual to you, but I live in BERKELEY! Crazy.
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