How To Live On $0 A Day

Be a cat.
We can't live on $0 a day ourselves, but we do try to economize. I had often considered switching to wood heating, so last year, when the town offered to subsidize the purchase of a wood burning stove, I decided it was time to take the plunge. Apparently, someone in national government decided it's better to burn wood from recently felled trees than from ancient ones that have turned to oil, as the former were soaking up carbon dioxide until a few months ago, rather than in the distant past. Accordingly, they made money available to rural towns to encourage those of us in "wood country" to stop feeding the oil barons. Not a moment to soon, from the look of this year's oil prices.
But me- I just like wood.
I like cutting it: I like how it smells, how it feels, how it looks. I like to sit in front of the stove and watch the fire, and feel that incomparable warmth. I even get to use the ashes in the garden for fertilizer.

And there is nothing more satisfying than the sight of a full woodshed on a snowy night.
For those of you who fear I am scalping the town- never fear. This pile is a combination of bits already discarded by various wood users.