I have cut my first load of firewood for the upcoming heating season, which may be a surer harbinger of the season than turning leaves, changing clocks or falling temperatures. Of course, we have other signs of the season, like the summer residents going south in their annual migration, bird watchers flocking to the Parkway as the birds flock off to warmer climates, the tourists vacating the streets, the fall festivals at the schools, digging potatoes and taking one more shot at catching the ‘Mack Daddy' trout during the spawning season.

As for the sign at hand, a friend who runs a heavy equipment business has once again helped me to find a place with more than ample firewood that's there for the cutting. I've always been one to try and cut when the cutting is good, but the weather hasn't been very cooperative this week.

I did have one evening that was a little overcast and drizzling, but not really raining, on which I managed to go out and cut a fair load. With the load or two I had left over from last year, I'm guessing that I'll need to cut at least six more loads of wood before the winter weather really starts.

In the meantime, I hope to be relying on my oil heater, which unexpectedly conked out over the weekend. It was damp and cool one evening and I decided to run it for a few minutes, just to make sure everything was going to work. It didn't. The little indicator on the front was flashing on and off like a VCR clock after a power outage and every bit as useless. I called my local heater repair expert to come on by for a service call that I hadn't planned on paying for this year, but that's life, I suppose. If everything I did worked out the way I wanted it to, I wouldn't have very much to do or write about, for that matter.

Luckily, I didn't wait until I really needed the heat to turn it on, else I would have had to find a way to burn wet wood in the stove. Why wet wood? If I don't prepare ahead, it's always either snowing or raining when I have to try and dig out wet firewood to work with and try to light it with newspaper and little or no kindling. That's because I usually don't prepare have a fire unless the daytime temperature is going to be in the 40s or lower. If you have a fire when it gets into the 50s, the house gets too hot. That's the main problem with a stove, you really can't turn it off whenever you want. It just keeps on heating and I usually end up opening the doors and windows.

I'm guessing it'll have to stop raining eventually, although it's either been rainy or overcast for the last seven straight days or more as I write this.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like this is the most rain I can ever remember. However, that may be influenced by the fact that we just came out of two years of drought, making it seem much wetter by comparison.

I didn't get to work Saturday, since I spent the entire day at the Mountain Heritage Festival. The rain held off all day for the event, although the often dark clouds did look like they could have started it up at any time they so desired. In looking at this week's forecast, there's a chance of rain every day and every night at least through this Saturday. I also need to dig my potatoes and clear the garden before winter.

Perhaps I'll be facing even a tighter deadline on getting those things finished before I really get concerned. Just for fun, I haven't mowed the grass in about two weeks either. Maybe I can get a day or two off and get everything caught up so I can let it all get behind again. Winter says, "Ready or not, here I come."
 

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