The Reality of Heating with Wood

The Clock is reading 3 am. It is a dark picture, but that just gives you a glimps into how dark and cold things felt in the wee hours of this morning.
The wood stove is looking toasty warm in the picture, but that was after the iron monster was well fed.
Here is the tale of Homestead life on a cold night, when stomachs were in turmoil !

Going back a few hours, its 3 a.m. The house is cold. The temperature outside is 20 F, and that is what is says on the thermometer by the back door, sheltered and always showing a couple degrees higher than reality.
Emery and I went out to eat last night to celebrate our anniversary a day early. Thursday night is quieter at the restaurants then on Friday. So we celebrated a day early.
By 3 a.m. its evident we ate something bad. Both of us wake feeling horrid. The house is cold, the fire had died down. When you feel yucky, being cold is worse than any other time, or so it felt last night, well, actually, this morning. This is one of those times that this simple homestead life, with its "wood heat only" conviction is not so much fun, and certainly is not to be romanticized as the perfect life. Its a reminder of what Little House on the Prairie must have been like at times, in regard to cold houses.It seems like hours before the fire has been coaxed into warm dancing flames, but it's only minutes. Time has a funny way of fooling you at times.
Logs stuffed into the belly of the cast iron hungry monster, casting a copper glow on the wooden floor in front of it.
Trips to the bathroom reaffirm to both Emery and I that we are certainly grateful to have indoor plumbing. Eating out is dangerous I guess, hazardous to your health at times and when the temperature drops below the freezing mark, and the house is cold, it hardly seems worth the risk to eat out, knowing bacteria lurks in so many places when the food is prepared by unknown hands.