starting fires

I start a good number of fires each year.

OK, we refer to them as “build”, as in “I built a fire.” Wonder where that got started!

Therefore, I go through a good number of matches. In the shop I use a propane torch to start the fire, but in the house and camping I use old fashioned matches.

When I ran out a few years ago, I just bought a big box at our usual grocery outlet. The box was a bit smaller, and the color did not look quite right, but I bought them.

Got home and they were awful. Didn't light well. Were just plain wrong. Checked. “Made in China.”

The chinese may make good stuff (for some reason they seem to send us the other stuff, mostly), but these matches were bad.

So I did some looking. Each store had the same brand, but I kept looking. Finally a store clear across town carried the real old fashioned “made in USA” – kitchen – strike any where – matches. I ran into the manager of the store and thanked him and told him to keep up the work.

It is time to go march shopping again. I know where I'll go.


Miriam is healthy and strong. She can't remember, but otherwise she is remarkably healthy.

She often brings in the firewood. It is good for her.

This spring I cut quite a bit of wood out of our apple trees. I cut the bigger pieces into stove size and stacked them in the wood shed.

Of course, she saw that nice new wood and brought it in the house. It is green and wet and won't burn well, so I took it back. Each day she brings in a few pieces and each day I take the back.