Homestead and Folly

Why Garden when you can just buy food? Why burn firewood when you could just have oil delivered? Why do I further challenge myself to get by on less cords, obsessively calculating and keeping track and delighting when I reach April cozy and warm? Why make my kid earn his gaming time with thirty minutes of hauling wood per one hour of gaming? How are the eyerolls and complaints worth it?  Why do any of it? The answer is, I cling to the notion that when I am all tied up with problems in the world, things I cannot control, that I can step outside where nature is in charge but I am allowed some bit of control over my own comfort. If I chop kindling and haul firewood, my family will be cozy and warm. A simple, beautiful equation. Finally something that makes sense today. There is something in the chore, the bite of freezing cold and the struggle through the snow that makes me think the challenge is worth it. Muscles straining, lungs stinging, slipping and sliding, having to fo