Another week has flown by! Is it just me or does time seem to go faster when we get older? Nonetheless, it’s one of those constants we can rely on, eh? Time. The sun rises and the sun sets no matter what we do. One of the blessings we have in Canada is the changing of the seasons. October is one of those months where this fact is ever so evident. One moment we are in shorts and t-shirts, the next, we’ve donned our hats and jackets. Do we put the heat on or the air conditioning? Yep, October is that kind of month.

So we find ourselves in this month of flux, pondering about the future. Specifically, we find ourselves thinking about the impending Canadian winter. It will be our first winter here in the country — and we hear the wind is something to contend with. Apparently we get some big snow drifts as the winter wind whips its way across the now cleared and barren farmer fields. Our little brick century home is surprisingly cozy and warm so far. In fact, the family and I are in debate about the temperature… it’s too hot, it’s cold, turn up the heat, open a window… and so it is in October.

Which brings us to our current project: firewood. We have a wood burning fireplace in our kitchen and my husband is delighted. He’s a bit of a fire fan. Now that the pool is closed up, he has switched his attention to learning all about fireplaces. He sourced a local farmer and ordered a bushel? A peck? A cord? A giant pile of firewood and kindling that arrived and was dumped on our driveway last week. More work for us! Now don’t worry, we haven’t gone off grid and wood will not be our main source of heat through the winter, so do we need the fire? No. Will it supplement our output and bring the country to our winter? Sure. Do we need it in October? Maybe not.

Alas, a few fires have been lit – just to test it out – I’ve been told. Especially at night… because, you know, that’s the coldest time in this unpredictable fall season. Which is all well and good until our fire protection starts screaming at us that “there is smoke in the dining room and the alarm will sound shortly”. Needless to say, the bedroom windows got cracked open and all was well in short accord. Well, all was fine after the late night debate on smoke in the house versus heat and necessary timing of fires in October versus the heart of winter. No worries. We still love each other.

Still, let’s go back to the thought of a cord of firewood in our driveway. (Which, should you care, according to Google is “an amount of wood, when racked and well stowed, occupies a volume of approximately 128 cubit feet. A pile 4 foot by 4 foot by 8 feet.) Emphasis on the racked and well stowed. Number one, we needed to find a clean, dry space for this wood. Number two we needed to get it there, and number three, it needed to be stored in some organized manner for use through the winter.

We have a cleared space not far from the house under some thick cedars that was the previous owner’s wood pile. A few logs are under there and it is fairly dry and usable. A little farther out is an empty metal shed currently used by the squirrels for their own winter collections of pine cones and the like. This seemed like the most logical place to set up the wood pile. And so we began the task of loading the newly acquired wheelbarrow and trekking wood. Oh… before that we had to shovel out the pine cones. Sorry to disturb your hard work, chipmunks.

Easy, right? A bit of manual labour never hurt anyone. Great workout. I soon discovered stacking wood is an art. You must start with something to lift the small logs off the ground, then fit small and large pieces together like some delicate game of Tetris… soaring ever so much higher until your shoulders ache from lifting above your own stature. I was doing well. It looked good. The fire pit master approved. Until. Until I casually tossed that log over my head and the right side of my pile shifted and logs began to slide. Then the whole six foot pile began tumbling to the right, sliding like Dominos, one after the other until my neat stack was again, just a pile.

I managed to regain my “racked and well stowed” pile with some strategically placed perpendicular logs along the side, and relied heavily on the walls of the shed for long term crash avoidance. Even though I don’t really want the wood leaning on the metal for fear it dents. Plus, there is something about proper air flow for dry wood you are supposed to adhere to for good storage. Live and Learn.

And so the adventures of city turned country bumpkins continues to unfold. Just the same, it gives me something to think about. How many times have I simply traveled along in my journey, piling up the accomplishments and achievements, only to have it come crashing all down on top of me. Why? I missed that firm foundation needed to make those accomplishments solid. The Gospels tell us that if our foundations are built on the solid rock of Christ, we will be able to stand firm when trials and tribulations come our way. Many of you are familiar with the builder who built his house upon the rock so that the winds could not shake it.

And so it is with us. Our Rock is firm. If we focus on laying those solid pieces of anchor logs (truths and promises shared with us in God’s Word), we are told that then we are safe to build and stack those racked and ready life plans for the future. Agreed, sometimes we tend to rely on the metal shed walls of our environment to catch us. Self help and worldly promises often do the job temporarily. Eventually, those, too, dent and give way to the pressure of the pile.

It takes discipline to develop those foundations. It is an Art. Once it is learned, we are guaranteed a constant supply of warmth and comfort in the dark dreary days of winter. Our hard work pays off in contentment. Preparation is a big deal here, and I’m discovering it is a well learned skill shared down through generation to generation. It pays to listen. I’ve got to get the wheelbarrow loaded up again and finish up the last few remnants of sticks still strewn across the driveway – because soon November will arrive and we will need a fire.