Now folks, I really do not care what you call it.  In the old days they would call it just being cheap.  Then they thought that was not such a nice word, so it went to being frugal. Now, I guess they are calling it minimalistic living. You see, I have to pay money to keep my refrigerator operating.  At present it holds three bottles of ginger ale.  One almost full bottle of Crown Royal whiskey. Salad dressing and ketchup.  The eggs went out of date around the first of November, so those don’t count. I think I should just put those outside to let them freeze. In the freezer compartment there now sits two containers of ice cream that I forgot I had. One has overflowed and I suspect they should be given to the critters.  The one bag of peas and potato puffs feel strange, so I guess the birds can have those. Now, all winter I have had to pay to keep these cold in case I wanted something different to eat. I will admit there were six bottles of ginger ale and the whiskey used to be full.  When I had ladies living here, there was always lots of different stuff in the refrigerator. But they sort of wanted stuff to be a bit more up to date. You know things like a cook stove and fancy stuff like that. Some of them even insisted I should think about putting up trim and mop boards. Well, I did think about it. I figured that was enough but guess not. My standards are the roof doesn’t leak all of the time. When the wind blows the snow around, it stays outside. They even sort of thought it would be nice to have a real heating system.  You know, one all you had to do was turn a dial and the house got warmer.  The problem here is I had to pay for the oil. I liked the idea of a wood stove.  I could always go out into the forest and cut down a standing dry tree for firewood. You see that was a win-win thing for me.  It got me out of the house and kept the house warm.  Once upon a time an old doctor told me I was healthier with wood heat.  She explained there were actually two types of germs. One did not like it too hot. The other type of germ did not like it below sixty degrees.  That was normal for wood heat. Now, that seemed a great excuse for me. But ahh alas, the ladies wanted something fancier.  Well, I got stuff fancier for them and now they are gone. So, guess what? I get to go back to a simplistic style of living.   I will admit, it is much nicer to just fill the pellet stoves instead of all that wood chopping. I do still have the wood stove. So, don’t get me wrong on that. But the refrigerator is actually, not really needed this time of year. I am slowly moving it closer to the outside. I can’t just throw it out because I know someone who needs it.  I do, however, need to keep the whiskey and ginger ale cold. But heck, this time of year, that is not a problem.  Oh ya, I do keep the milk and ketchup cool along with the salad dressing. But the choices are many on where to put them. I will just make an almost fancy container and set it next to the back door.  Plenty of cool there and the mice can’t get the whiskey there.  I figured, it must be the mice because every time I looked at that bottle, more whiskey seemed to disappear. Now, my house has different heat zones.  If you are prone to hot flashes, just sit in that corner. If you feel the chills, by all means sit with your back toward the wood stove.  I must caution you though, some of these chairs leave a strange looking dent on the forehead. Especially if you fall asleep. If the sun happens to shine, then get out the bathing suit. The house is going to get hot really quick. All that sun pouring in through the many windows in the sunroom area overheats the house.  The big problem this presents is when you need something out in the woodshop.  It does look rather strange to be walking around out there in the cold in just ya bathing suit. You know, the more I think about it, it’s a darn good thing I do live alone in the last house on the road.

Ken White      mountainman

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