Good Oak

"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a cabin. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden. To avoid the second, one should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, and let it warm one's shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled one's own good oak, and let one's mind work the while, one will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week in town astride a radiator."

-Aldo Loepold, naturalist and author of A Sand County Almanac