sledge  (slej) n. A vehicle mounted on low runners drawn by work animals, such as horses or dogs, and used for transporting loads across ice, snow, and rough ground.

tr. & intr.v. sledged, sledg·ing, sledg·es To convey or travel on a sledge.

We are in the January Deep now.  Cold, frozen and white.  The days are allegedly getting longer though I have yet to feel the effects.  We are keeping a fire in the fireplace blazing for what seems like all day, every day, trying to warm our porous house.  The need for curtains, or blinds, or cardboard hacked into window-shaped rectangles grows greater every day the temperature hovers near the single digits and the cold air makes its way inside through our naked single pane windows.

My husband takes his job of Procurer of Firewood very seriously. I won’t speculate about why, exactly, this is the case, as I’m trying to consciously avoid psychologizing about every aspect our lives.  That way, I don’t have to wax on about what makes men tick and you don’t have to read about it.  You’re welcome.

During many of his post- and pre-official job hours, my husband gets firewood for us.  He does this the old-fashioned way, lugging it out of the woods, neatly solving the problem of our unfortunate lack of a mule by building a sledge that he can pull himself.

Here is his sledge, which makes us both (him directly, me vicariously) feel slightly less like the 21st century grocery-store-dependent, electric-lights-blazing people we are.

Out of the Woods

Across the ice

Whittled into Place

Me Build Fire. Keep Family Warm.