The beauty of wood heat

There is a skill in selecting just the right piece of dry wood for splitting.
And there is a skill in splitting that piece of wood down into kindling, popping the pieces apart with a well-placed tap.
There is a joy in the ring of dry kindling as it pops free of the log and clatters to the floor.
And there is a joy in creating a fire from nothing.
There is a satisfaction in the heat of the stove as the fire builds.

But the real beauty of a woodstove fire is the way it heats the whole house, until the entire structure is one giant source of radiant heat,
and you bask wrapped in 74 degrees while snow and ice sorround your humble abode.