Green leaves under white snow.... not cool. Yes, it is beautiful and it reflects a cool white light in through the studio windows as I sip espresso and type this post but I have been patiently waiting for all of these trees to turn orange and yellow. Herrumph.
Of course, not only is the snow here but it was preceded by two weeks of below average temps. But not to worry for I have devoted the last three days to combating the forces of low R-values.
Our space is charming and eccentric and we have grown quite attached but around this time of year, we have to face facts: we live in Minnesota in a building that used to be a school bus depot and our main source of heat is a charming wood stove which means, we dress in layers... all the time.
This year however, I think we may have gotten a leg up on ole man winter. My confidence is prompted by the biggest and best find of split firewood ever. You see there's this guy named Craig and he has a list and on Craig's List on Friday, I found an ad for split firewood for a rather good value. I dropped everything (sorry Friday emailers... I did get back to you on Saturday though) and my brother and I drove the 45 minutes to look at it.
The conversation went something like this (if you've ever seen the movie 'Fargo' or told a Leena & Ollie joke, you'll do just fine)
"So, looks like you got some wood to git rid of, eh? Yeah, looks like you got a good three da four chords dare."
"Yeah, yeah, I will take $150 fer a chord or $500 fer da whole of it"
"Well, we'll take it (quick cash exchange without counting money). And we'll head back twards da cities to git our trailer, eh?"
"Ok eh."
So we made three trips and spent hours breaking our backs but in the end we ended up with 6 1/2 chords of seasoned and split firewood (Minneapolis street value = $3250... ka ching) for only $500. This is more than double what we have had in previous winters so hopefully we'll have some left over for next year too. Either that or we'll just burn it all and spend the winter in our underpants.
The excellent find of wood domino-ed into a weekend of sealing cracks and filling gaps and putting plastic on the windows. So, needless to say when I saw the snow this morning, I was not worried and chest didn't well up with the anxiety of 3000 little things to do before the real cold set in but rather, I was excited and decided to take Gertrude outside for a few shots.
Sat her down, we waited for adequate snow flakes to fall on her muzzle, I raise the camera.... she breaks pose to catch a snowflake
I say, "NO! Sit!"... and she gives me this face.
