Pennies from Heaven

The answers to my day-today problems don’t typically fall right out of the sky, but this weekend they did. I’ve been fretting about brick oven fuel supplies for a while now, since I’ve been lazy about acquiring a load of green (i.e. “fresh”) wood to start curing for next year’s baking. My problems were solved — and others created — when a shockingly intense storm hit Louisville Saturday evening. It delivered hurricane-force winds for a stretch of about twenty minutes. Half an hour later the sun was shining but there were trees down all over the place.

We were lucky not to have lost power like some 200,000 Louisvillians did. Our refrigerator and freezer are full of food brought to us by our less fortunate neighbors. Not much happened to us. A truly giant tree limb fell off a neighbor’s tree, but hit the street directly in front of the house, which makes it the City’s problem. The only damage in our yard: the long-suffering little the dogwood tree in the back — which always seems to be on the receiving end of one of Mother Nature’s violent whims — lost yet another limb, poor thing. Oh well…it’s a survivor.

If I’m not posting as much today you’ll know where I am…collecting the best pieces of the windfall from around the neighborhood and reducing them down to firewood. Yes it’s a lot of trouble to cut and stack my own wood when I can so easily buy it, but I’m getting cheaper as I get older. These logs may be worth only nickels and dimes, but darn it, they’re free!