Adventure of a different sort

When folks ask what I have been up to, there seems to be a certain expectation hanging in the air, as if I must be on some grand mission, fool hardy errand, or amusing tangent. My stock answer of late has been "not much, just working alot". Which is true, 6 days a week between 4 jobs, but that should slacken this week when the wilderness medicine class ends. This weekend we simulated a plane crash in the woods and ran a mass casualty incident with the students, and I am pleased to report they did quite well.

But I digress. The real excitment of late has been my aquisition of a wood burning stove for the house. Yep, that's right I finally did it. Fed up with being cold and unwilling to pay the high price of natural gas (as well as being suspicious of my furnace and ducting anyway), I went on ahead and got one. That was the easy part. Now to install it...

I have so far begun ripping up a section of carpet, laying tile for the hearth, and soon will cut a big hole in my roof. That is the new adventure, with much anticipation and nervousness surrounding it. Sure I could pay an exorbant amount to have someone else do it, but I figure that a project of this magnitude will force me to do quality work. That and the dual fear of leaking roof and house fire. So now every day is a race against winter snows, though it is already cold enough that I look forward to the promise of heat.