Country Life and Wood for the Winter Stove

Lately we have been cutting and stacking wood. Hard work but very necessary! Every year the wind, heavy snows or ice build up downs a tree or sends limbs crashing through the trees tearing off more limbs on its way down. So every-so-often we have to cut up the fallen timber for fire wood. Actually the wood shed is quite large and the stacks are now more than 6' high  (about 20' long) and three courses deep. Some winters we use more wood than others.
This winter is predicted to be a colder one with more snow, so we should keep warm. That's no joke, because where I live power goes out frequently when an icy limb or dead tree takes down a power line. It can take the power company a long time to track down the downed wires and remove the tree and fix the lines. We have been without power for days, which means we are without running water also, as the well pump is run by electricity too. We can cook and heat food on the wood heater. So we get along pretty well.  TV is out, but we all have cell phones - until the batteries run down. My laptop has battery backup but no internet of course. Even wireless is useless here. I read by the window or candle light, play Sudoku. Hard to paint with so little light, but I try. It is funny, when the electricity is restored, and I can evaluate my painting in brighter light, I am amazed at how off the values and some colors can be.
As if on cue, I was interrupted in writing this by a power outage, the electricity went out early this morning but came back on at noon.