Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dawned our first day on the homestead. Bella snuggled with Sylvia, first young ones to rise, keeping warm on the couch while watching me start the first of many, many fires to start in this home of ours.

Our woodburning furnace will be hooked to the ductwork in the house and provide all of the heat we need during the cold months here in Southeast Ohio, with wood all collected from the 140 acres of forest surrounding our home.

Yes, I use a propane torch to start the fire. It's fast, and when you have small cold babies, fast is good. Our first bit of wood was provided by a lovely family, delivering and helping us stack our supply to get us in this house by Christmas. But as I type I can hear the chainsaw running, with Papa and the oldest three out in the woods with a friend cutting up some nicely seasoned cherry, maple and locust.

Papa and the boys got the kitchen sink working pretty quickly so I could wash dishes somewhere other than the bathroom sink.

Then it was time for the tree to go up. We hadn't put it up at the "town house." It wasn't worth taking it down to move it. Upstairs, it will be a live tree from our woods. We already have one picked out. But down in the small basement, moving the day before Christmas, it was the old boxed tree that went up with a lot of help and ornament sorting.

After all hands had a chance to put up ornaments,

or try to take them down,

the tree was up and decorated. And for the next two weeks, until the wise men made it to their destination, it lighted our room all day and night with a warm glow.

It was a lovely way to spend our first day on the homestead.