From the Home Place

January 24, 2026

Well, the ‘ol thermometer reads -15 degrees outside. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out it’s plum cold outside with the 5-10 mph breeze out of the west! Miss Deb and I are to meet with a family right at 30 miles to the north-west of us at 1:30 today, hopefully we can get some sunshine and decent roads?

So that our water didn’t freeze in the house last night, I left the water dripping in our kitchen sink. It sure was nice to see it still dripping when I got up this morning. Here’s a memory for you: the year was 1963, I was 10 years old and had been roused out of bed by my dad. The house was fairly warm because dad had stayed up most of the night keeping the wood stoves fired, as such, I needed to go fetch some more wood.

As I walked past the kitchen sink in the ‘ol shack I grew up in, I noticed it too was slowly dripping water. That’s where I learned it’s easier to let it drip a bit than it is to defrost frozen pipes. When Jack Frost comes calling, you have to figure out how to keep him from settling in.

Dad warned, “You had better put on an extra layer, the thermometer reads somewhere between 35 & 40 below zero, and the wind is clipping out of the west. There’s somewhere close to a foot of snow on the ground and plenty of drifts between here and the wood pile, so watch yourself.” There was no need to grumble, I quietly put on every layer of clothes I could find, a wool vest and then my winter chore coat, Scotch cap, gloves and then opened the porch door.

A blast of extremely cold air captured my breath for a moment, and then I was able to steel it back and take off into the dark abyss. It was still snowing, so there were no stars or moon to show the way. As I rounded the west corner of the house, the wind slapped me in the face, oh that did hurt. As I trudged my way to the wood pile, through several snow drifts equal to my height, I kept waiting to be eaten by a wandering mountain lion. As I neared the wood pile, some kind of critter ran out from under it, yep, I was all warmed up right then and there!

I dug around through the snow to find enough wood to make a double armload and headed back to the house. Of course my previous tracks were pretty much blown closed, so I had to plow a new path with both arms full of wood.

I heard that, someone just asked, “How in the world do you get a double armload of wood?” Well, you asked so I’ll tell you how. You begin by digging out all of the wood you will need, beating the snow off of each piece before placing it on the pile of wood to be transported. You then place your left arm out in front of you, and then you start piling wood on that appendage. Then kneeling with your left knee in the snow, you use you right knee and leg as a bench, balancing the rest of the load of wood on your left arm and right leg. When you have put on every stick of wood that you can possibly carry, you push your right arm under the load and attempt to stand erect once again. You ought to try it, it’s really fun in -40degree weather, with wind and fresh snow, in the dark!

Arriving at the house that felt like it was at least 100 degrees inside, I put the wood into the wood box with a great feeling of accomplishment, only to hear dad say, “Good job, now get a load for mom’s cook stove.” So, back out into the Klondike I went to a different pile of wood to repeat the previous joyous performance. When I arrived at my destination with that batch of wood, mom greeted me with a smile. Thanking me for my help she poured me a fresh cup of coffee and our day was underway.

I then stripped off my layers of clothes down to my base layer. It would be close to an hour before we had finished breakfast, re-layered clothes and headed back out the door to do chores. It sure was great to “get to” grow up on a Wyoming ranch! (I’ll finish the morning’s events tomorrow.)

Sometimes, the Christian life can easily resemble this story, I can easily become a rotten routine if we are not careful. You see, if all we are doing is our “job” as we do our morning reading and praying, it doesn’t take too long to get bored, and then we stop all together. But, if we start each morning with prayer, praising our Father for keeping the warm fire of faith going while we slept, then our day will be more of an adventure rather than a chore.

You see my friends, morning devotions can be a lot like having to carry in another armload of wood. It is hard work, but it sure beats setting around in the cold.

Praise, pray and prepare, today is going to be an amazing day as we watch our loving Heavenly Father unfold the adventure before us. Oh for sure, the weather is cold and rather nasty outside, and sometimes we feel like we are groping around in the dark, but when we safely finish this day, we will be able to lay our heads down, thanking God for His gracious protection and provision! You see, if we do that which He asks us do for today, we too can see that warm motherly smile and hear the gentle words, “Thank you.” And by the way, your Bible provides layers of warm clothes, so bundle up, it’s cold out there!

Turning chores into an adventure with you, Neal