IT'S DECEMBER

It's December, and generations of families of our ancestors have been burning wood to keep warm; wood, that had been cut later in the fall, mostly soft wooded variety which did not burn has hard as oaks. Yet, they cut the wood near them hoping to cord up enough to last several months.

Although my family were not lumberjacks by trade, they all did, starting with Gust and Olaf, chop down trees and load them on the train cars to be shift south. Daddy did his share of logging around Itasca State Park as a young man.

I have a friend, who until this fall, burned wood to keep their house warm. It was the main source of heat although there were a couple of wall heaters to take off the chill if the fire in the wood furnace burned down. She stated last early last spring it would be the last year in the house. Old Trunks is certain you will understand why this statement was made, as her husband had a heart attack after lumber jacking one day. She kept him alive by beating on his chest. It was, like this part of the country can be, a stormy night and getting him to necessary attention on a blustery night added even more certain. Happily I can say, they are living in a home with central heat.

Daddy was raised in a house with heat only in the kitchen. The water pail in the kitchen was frozen over in the morning. He dedicated his life to have his children have a warm house with no drafts where you could play on the floor without ever being cold.

Daddy also told me that if I had a flat tire in the winter to drive home on the rim because he didn't want me subjected to the brutal cold and he promised he would do the same. One of those icy still nights when we lived on the farm one could hear a scraping sound. Someone was coming home on the rim. He said he walked to Thief River Falls from Rosewood in the winter and he vowed he would never be that cold again.

Everyone talks about the weather in this part of the country. Mother said it was important to know what it was like. Even in the summer. Okay, here I am, a product of North Dakota for ten years and have become, as my sweet Thomas, a wanna bee weather man!

Let's hope all of us have a warm winter. Shall we start talking about Christmas?

e