We're in full 'get ready for the winter' season here at the Goldsmith house. This week has been cold thus far (after a stretch of bizarre mid to upper 70s temps) and this morning there was a bit of frost on the cars, etc. This Wednesday and Thursday we are supposed to get our first "NorEaster" of the season, with rain of course; some of the forecasts call for 3.5 inches of rain...imagine if that were snow??

One of the things we do this time of year is play musical-wood, moving wood all around, stacking new stuff for 'next' year, and bringing a cord or so into the garage. Pneumonia and a cracked rib have put a damper on those plans, and now I find myself a bit behind...I have to play catch up (as Lunberg from OfficeSpace would say) before it rains....

One of the things I love about burning wood is how versatile, renewable, re-usable, and cool it is! I mean, obviously, we use the wood to heat the home. But we end up using ALL of the wood. We have it dumped in the driveway, and then I split some of the pieces to our desired size. We stack the big pieces in cord-rows. The little pieces become kindling. After all is said and done, we are still left with a huge mess of ground up bark, wood chips,splintered chunks, dirt, moss, and whatever else has fallen to the bottom of the pile from the freshly cut wood. The splintered chunks are set aside and then piled onto the shelf by the barbeque and then thrown on the hot coals to impart a maple or oaky-smoke flavor to the meat. The moss/bark/chip mix is swept up and dumped right on top of our raised garden beds--instant compost fertilizer. It feels good to use every last bit of the product.

Have you noticed how crappy newspapers have become? The BostonGlobe, once a fantastic paper, is basically a tabloid now, carrying non stop stories about Ebola....and then stories about how the public is freaking out, unnecessarily, about Ebola. THEN STOP LITTERING YOUR FRONT PAGE WITH IT. Silly idiots. But then I got to thinking: The dumbing down of newspapers and network news isnt the fault of the networks and papers. I really believe it is our fault. We no longer have any attention span or 'desire' for any real, in depth, serious news. We love everything to be spoon fed and interesting and scandalous and divisive and partisan. So it isnt the fault of the newspapers and web sites and networks: I mean, they are a business, just like any other business, and they are trying to make money, and they are catering to their audience.

Thank God for NPR.


Efth....silly man....

Callum (I dont know where Maira is) at Sunday school....I havent written much about Sunday School lately....Amanda and I are 'intro leaders' this year...I will write about it sometime...

OakHillAndy gave us a bunch of boards for kindling (he now does pellets, so he hath no need of they). They are fantastic pieces of wood for kindling (and a few of them I even turned into raised beds for next year's garden). Best of all, they are nice grainy pine for Callum to learn to 'split' with a hatchet. The passing of the torch so to speak; a coming of age.....

I know I should have him wear safety glasses next time. But other than that, he was VERY good and safe; I even taught him the correct way to pass someone an axe, how to put it away, etc. He was very interested in following the rules of wood splitting. He loves rules.

Hey look, it is Saturday morning, so that means it is time for the Maira and Lupine show! Yeay! Princess Lupine!! This cat looks friggin thrilled. God bless her.....