Our elder sister kept telling us she had to get outside and do something. Sadly, it had been snowing for three mornings straight. She wanted to cut wood so we would have it for the fireplace. Ever since the price of heating fuel hit $7 a gallon, our family had been using the fireplace as our sole source of heating. When we kept the doors open in the cabin, it worked charmingly. We had plenty of aged wood down because of storms over the last many years, so we didn’t need to buy wood. Our elder sister said it was free fuel, and it didn’t use electricity, so we should use what we were provided. With it snowing as much as it was, and being ten degrees below normal, we were using plenty of the wood. We had gone through twice as much as we thought we would, and we ended up with an empty wood bin. Unless it stops snowing soon, we wouldn’t have heat much longer. After three mornings of constant snow, it dawned bright and sunny one day. My elder sister donned her heavy overcoats and headed out to get wood, however it took nearly all afternoon. We had enough wood in the woodshed and on the porch to last us the rest of the winter, even if all of us got snowed in. I don’t know what we would do without the fireplace, because the price of fuel was too much for us to afford. Not only did the fireplace keep our house hot and cozy, however it also gave us a night light when we got up in the middle of the night. No one complains when something has a double duty.