Aldo Leopold on February

One of my favorite essays from A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC by Aldo Leopold is " Good Oak" which is the February entry. First he presents his opinion about the understanding that comes from living on the land and living in town.
"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. 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, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.
To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator."*
*This is a quotation from an edition of A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC published by Tamarack Press, distributed through Oxford University Press, c1977, p. 12.

Later the essay chronicles history as he saws across the rings of an old oak tree which was felled by lightning and became their winter heat at the Wisconsin shack. Leopold recounts the most recent events of the last year backward to pioneer days as the saw cuts to the heart of the trunk.
You can trace Leopold's astute observations of the progress of the season in his writings in the classic A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC. I highly recommend it!