Firewood and Turnips

As my husband and I were driving to my sister-in-law’s house the other evening, Glen noticed a sign along the road that read “Free Firewood”. This caught his attention because we have burned more firewood this year than in any of the other 18 years we have lived in our house. It has been a cold winter. In fact, the night we saw the sign we were about to burn the last of the firewood from our own tree thinning of last year.

Sunday afternoon we drove over to the house of the man giving away firewood. In the daylight we could see his big garden, as well as the huge area he was clearing for more garden space. We knocked on the door and an elderly woman told us to go out back where her husband was on a tractor. We met this weathered, hard working man outside on a very cold day as he cleared land for more garden space. We asked about the firewood and he showed us to an area and told us to take all we wanted. He just needed a little for BBQ later in the spring. As we loaded our truck, we complimented the man on his garden. He had rows of cabbages, greens and other cool weather crops. As we left his home he handed us a nice bag of fresh turnips and we talked about how everything tastes so much better right out of the garden. This man, who neither of us had ever met before, gave us vegetables from his garden and wood from his field.

That evening as we sat before a roaring fire, we watched the old Paul Newman movie, Hud. One of the main characters made the statement, “Little by little the look of the country changes because of the men we admire.”

hope and pray we all admire people like our new friend who shared with total strangers.