The instructions were simple really…….
- Love and take care of the dog.
- Keep the home fires burning.
"All you have to do is keep adding wood to the fire but not too much wood or the smoke stack will catch fire. If you think you have the fire going too well just shut the doors and turn the latch and it will calm right down. I'll leave you this gauntlet so you won't burn yourself on the screen or doors."
A gauntlet, I thought, …..hm, very enticing. I hadn't heard of a gauntlet since the "Tales of Monte Cristo". All very adventure like don't you think?
So off Emily and the boys went to work and school. I sat at the kitchen table writing and reviewing an article when I heard this tapping on the glass door. As I looked over Ginger the rooster was looking at me. (Yea that's right, a guy named Ginger. It's one of those baby chicken stories where a guy who's thought to be a chicken ends up a rooster. This is a very common occurrence in the poultry world.)
He was looking at me in such a way that I felt he was tyring to communicate telepathically. Then his girlfriend came over inquiring "what's the matter?"
and that's when it dawned on me that one I was cold and two I hadn't seen the dog in a while.
The rest of this blog post will resemble that of a confession…………….
As I'm yelling for the dog, I'm also walking to the family room to check on the fire. Out……as in the fires out.
Well not completely out. There were many hot coals. So I ran right on over, put on my gauntlet and got to loading wood.
And then started huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf except I was the big bad Val. I swear I was almost hyperventilating, and then when oxygen was at a minimum, the fire started.
And that my friends is the story of how I wore the gauntlet, was saved by the birds and kept the home fires burning.
A Place Like This 
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