Four things a man will never admit to…

I am not sure if I mentioned that I had a wood burning stove installed in the main room of the house, around October last year.  It has been a real learning curve; lots of new things to consider like  how much wood do you need to buy, collect, acquire.  And the same applies with the quantity of coal.  I have really enjoyed the lumber jacking side of things; it is quite fun working with a chainsaw.  Though safety is a big thing, I never fancied being a one handed artist!  There is a real great outdoor feeling, cutting large pieces of lumber then splitting them with the big axe.  A friend told me that real fires heat you three times.  Firstly, cutting and splitting the logs, secondly, carrying the the logs in and then again when you light the fire.  And it is on the subject of lighting the fire that is the real topic of this blog post, four things a man will never admit to… 

I heard an interview with the racing driver, Stirling Moss, he said “there are two things a man will never admit to, being a bad driver or being bad in bed.”   I believe I can add two more to that, the first is barbecue, gentlemen, a charred sausage is not a good thing!  The other is keeping a wood burning stove going.  The thing with a wood burning stoves is, it is not about flames, it is all about getting it hot and keeping the heat in by closing the vents.  When a chap looks at the stove, you get a “Mmmm,  nice glow but no flames.”  They then open the doors and throw timber on the fire.  All well and good, but very inefficient.  I think both barbecue and burner are kind of linked  back to some kind of macho “Caveman TV”, an “I am man.. Me make fire” attitude.  I realise that is a sweeping generalisation, however, I have been to a lot of barbecues and the vast majority of men who think they can cook are not very good on flames and I have observed the same with the wood burner.  But you tell a bloke that.  You might as well question his manhood…..  I invite comments either for or against. ..  🙂