Pursed within a natural bowl in the conifer timberlands, our cabin cools quickly after the last light of day dissolves into the long shadows. Waking in the predawn this morning, I started a warming fire to ward off a district chill.
Starting a fire is not an imposition;
it is a privilege. I also enjoy the constant challenge of building the perfect
kindling stack to grasp the first flame and hand it off to the split rounds
needed for righteous heat.
I used paraffin-infused chunks of
sawdust to start fires in the woodstove. They are not as greedy as paper.
Rather, they hold the flame once ignited, then gradually intensify and feed the
kindling.
There is a solid gratification in
tending the woodstove in the early morning hours and bringing warmth to the
pink, shadowy beginning of a blue-sky day.
—Mitchell Hegman
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