Since the SILs departure, we have had only one fire in the pretty good room. Mostly walling off all of that cabin-cave complex and contending ourselves with hunkering down on the kitchen porch. It being semi-winterized and having a wood stove. A stove that is way more efficient than the fireplace and can be left to safely cool unattended. We do not want to violate the cabin’s prime directive: Do not burn the cabin down! Thanks to Jane’s innovation of a wood splitter appropriately sized logs are now easy to make. Since we’ve cleaned the stove’s window, it is possible to see the fire now, but it is still not as picturesque as the fireplace. In the photo, a nearly split log forms a chimney and acts like a torch.

It is still quite cool here, lows in the forties, with highs in the sixties, but there is a slow, almost imperceptible day-to-day temperature rise. Today it might warm enough to justify opening some windows to help warm the cave. This morning, we made a hazmat run and toured the back half of the Chippewa County Recycling Center. The decor was very GFL. This errand cleared the decks for Monday’s appointment with Bugman Bob. Unfortunately, it has done little to clear out the cave. It did help with the shed though, giving us room to move stuff back there. Two steps forward, one step back, if I have that right.