Who needs a gym membership when you have a fireplace?

 I have always loved a fire, especially when it is in your living room, right next to your comfy chair in a brick fireplace with a raised hearth!  Having a large stack of books on the end table is icing on the cake.  I guess my love of fireplaces goes back to my childhood at the 3 Bears' House in Cedar Mountain, North Carolina.  When I was growing up, my family spent the whole summer at the cabin.  It was a rustic place with the sun shining through the spaces in the batten & board siding, shaded by majestic Carolina Hemlock trees.  The stone fireplace in the living room was made from the rocks that had been drilled and blasted out of the ground when the spring was made...that's "spring" as in a hole in the ground from which comes the sweetest and coldest water you can imagine, as opposed to "spring" as in the season following winter.  The fireplace was built by my grandfather, Solomon Alexander Jones, who used rudimentary tools in all of his construction jobs.  It is the focal point of the living room, which measures about 30 by 50 feet.  The beams across the ceiling of the room are poplar logs, complete with bark, which were cut from the woods surrounding the house.  Evenings would find us gathered around the fireplace enjoying the warmth that would take the chill off of the mountain evening.  Our family would usually be joined by aunts, uncles and cousins who would come to enjoy the fire and the company.  Since we didn't have a television (or a telephone, for that matter) the "elders" would entertain us with stories from their childhoods.  Tales of wild hogs, moonshine, square-dancing, farming and bear hunting would keep the kids wide-eyed for hours. So when Steve and I built our house in 1984, a fireplace was at the top of my list.

So I know you are wondering what a fireplace has to do with a gym membership.  It's simple.  In order to have a fire in the fireplace, you must have wood to burn.  The wood has to be purchased or cut from your own property, hauled to the house and stacked in the woodpile.  Last Saturday, that was my project.  I usually purchase my wood from a kindly old gentleman who has a shop on the side of the highway just south of Coolidge, Ga...about 8 miles from my house.  The afternoon was cold and gray.  However, the 45 minutes it took me to unload the wood and stack it on my patio were just as effective as an afternoon at the gym.  Cardio, weight training, cross-training were all included.  The best thing about this activity is that at the end, you not only have an increased heart-rate and some calories expended, you have enough fuel for a winter of cozy fires.  That's what I call a win-win!