~~~~~~~Happy Belated Ground Hog Day~~~~~~~

Punxsutawney Phil did indeed see his shadow…..

…..sooooooo…..six more weeks of winter(?)…..(I guess)…..

~~~~~Punxsutawney Phil~~~~~

This has been a great winter to indulge in my semi-pyromania…..

I’ve cleaned up the backyard…..and the front yard…..

…..now I’ve started on the goat’s pasture…..

This has all been a clean-up mission of two years of blown down stuff from all of the trees…..

Unidentifiable mosses…Palmetto fronds…squirrel-decimated pinecones (just to get things rolling)…Spanish moss…just about anything I can get my hands on…..

…..I am usually quite discerning regarding super-decayed wood…..not that I won’t burn it…..

…..but it needs further scrutiny, because it usually comes with critters in it…..

…..usually fire ants…..

***What Are These Nasty Ants?***

…..which get super-active when you carry the firewood into the house and they’ve had a chance to warm up against your torso…..

…..(I’m sad to say…..that has happened on more than one occasion)…..

…..(what can I say…..I’m a slow learner)…..

…..(I’m a slow learner with lots of itchy welts)…..

I keep an eye out for the tree frogs or toads or hibernating anoles…..

If I’ve missed one and they start to warm up and run to the side of the fire…..the cats are all lined-up ready to pounce…..

…..that’s my sure-fire clue that there is “something” in the fireplace that needs fishing-out/rinsing-off/ & re-depositing back outside…..

…..except for the fire ants…..

…..I don’t let them have a second chance to chew on me…..

I haven’t even pulled out my chainsaw yet this year…..there is just that much junk wood laying around…..

…..I’m not above thwacking large pieces of wood over my head and smashing them onto the ground…..

…..to break them up into smaller pieces…..that fit in my fireplace…..

It doesn’t stack well…..

…..the wood from the goat pasture has that identifiable/heady-aroma of dried wood that has wicked-up caprine evacuations…..

…..Come On!…..in some cultures all they burn is dried dung…..

…..It still burns…..

(btw:  I’m sure you’re not surprised to learn that I have my own chimney-sweep brush…..we clean our own chimney…..no Dick Van Dyke…..& no choreography…)-(but I do have the hat.)