Fire!

   We have been thinking about back  up heating system for a little while. The house only has a gas fireplace and the gas company is not available to come here until January 9th to connect it. Steve was talking with our neighbor Jim and he said that our chimney looks just like his - and his fireplace can be converted from gas to wood. We investigated the fireplace model and sure enough, it is designed for both gas and wood. Steve did not waste any time, pulled all the gas related parts out and as of December 29th we have fire.

   Since we now have a wood fireplace, we need wood. We have some fallen trees on our property and our neighbor is also letting us have any downed trees on his property. Few days ago Steve and David cleared a four-wheeler trail that starts on our neighbor's property and goes to the top of our property across the street. On December 31 we went out to cut some wood and Stevie and I went to check out the new trail (Hannah has already seen it as she helped Dad when he was clearing it). 

Steve cutting a tree near the trail

Hannah is learning about ferns

Little hikers

Hannah's backpack is full of toys

Steve catching up to us after he cut the wood

At the top of our ridge

Hannah loves trees

Nature girls

Stevie helped load the wood in a wheel barrel

Going back to the house - in front of our neighbor's barn

Our homestead with Holston Mountain in the background

Stevie set up every single piece of wood for Dad to split

Splitting wood