January 2025 - 47

of cottonwood versus pine, aspen or juniper.
Our old farmhouse is a two-woodstove
dwelling and we are so married to this subsistence
of gathering, chopping, stacking and
ultimately burning that we have a woodstove
in the shop, one of our greenhouses and even
the camper that we pull into the hills, a modern-day
version of the sheep camps of old
prepped for today's highways.
We make no claim to have a smaller carbon
footprint than our gas furnace and gas fireplace
brethren. Heck, we probably have a greater
one. But our heat is primal, ancestral, deep. It
warms not just body but soul, it mends mind
and comforts troubles. Walk into a wall tent
on a cold fall morning long before the sun
rises and feel the warmth of the cookstove.
Step into a woodland cabin with a fire cracking
and popping, driving back the cold snow
outside. For us, wood heat defines the very
meaning of home.
As a child of the OPEC days when our President
urged us to turn down the thermostat
and most of us listened, the burning of fossil
fuels for home heat is something which I avoid,
yet I have no qualms about roaring wood fires
and stoking the flames. I learned the lessons
of frugality but there should be no limits on
the balm that soothes the wood-fired soul.
- Thomas Reed is the author of several books including,
" Mouthful of Feathers, Upland in the West. " He and his
family run a small organic farm.
- Lori Eslick is an illustrator, artist, presenter, children's
book illustrator and workshop leader. She regularly
creates illustrations for Wyoming Wildlife magazine's
Wild Country Dispatch column. More of her work can
be seen at eslickart.com.
Wyoming Wildlife | 47

http://www.eslickart.com

January 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2025

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