February at The Writers Cabin

What's it like outside in February up at The Writers Cabin?

As you can see it's usually cold and snowy up at The Writers Cabin during the Winter.  This can easily be relieved by taking the following action.

Open the door of the BIS high efficiency wood burning stove.  Place two logs into the wood stove with a gap of approximately 4 inches between them. Wad up four pieces of newspaper and stuff them loosely between the two logs.

This can be tricky because invariably you will find an advertisement or article on one of the pieces of newspaper that will interest you, and you will have to take the time to read it.  One option when this occurs is to just use three pieces of newspaper instead of four and keep the interesting piece of paper for later.

Take some twigs and place them between the two logs making an X pattern, or any other character of the alphabet you happen to favor.  Top your stack with a piece of split firewood and another log.

Open the fireplace flue.  This is a must or The Writers Cabin will fill with smoke and the smoke detectors will go off causing its occupants to go deaf, or at a minimum become very grumpy.

Using a match, lighter, or other source of fire to ignite the newspaper.  Once the paper has caught and one or more twigs is burning shut the door.  Now go make yourself some hot chocolate, a glass of wine, or some other libation and remember a watched fire will never burn.

With the fire roaring set down in your favorite chair with a pad and a pen, or a laptop and write.  Enjoy the warmth of the fire and let the words pour out on to the paper.  Oh and let's hope that what's being recorded on the paper or the computer becomes the next bestseller.