Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

There is a saying here that "Češi umí". It literally means "Czechs know", as in they know how to do just about anything. For example, if something breaks, rather than call the repairman, they will often figure out how to fix it themselves. In another example, just about every Czech woman knows how to cook every typical czech food. Another thing many Czech men know is how to cut wood and start a fire. With energy costs in Europe extremely high compared to the USA, many town or village dwellers rely on wood for heating. This is becoming a lost art in the cities, however, as most city residents live in blocks of apartments.

For me in California, having a fire meant putting the duraflame into the fireplace, turning on the gas, pressing the ignite button, and then enjoying the peaceful ambiance of my 1-lb cylinder of petroleum-soaked compressed sawdust. However, here the situation is quite different. For example, Duraflame-type "logs" can be purchased here, but they are viewed as a silly luxury for the lazy rich, as they are small and expensive (about $4 US for a mini-sized chunk of instant fire). So this past fall our friend Milos decided to teach us to be like proper Czechs and learn how to cut wood and start a fire. Milos works as a woodsman (really - a woodsman), and he brought us a few carloads of wood. He also brought us a big tree stump to use as a chopping block, and sold us a proper axe. My first few attempts at splitting logs were a mix of funny and scary, as I often missed the log entirely with my axe (kind of like swinging a golf club too hard and completely missing the golf ball) and a few times almost sucessfully performed self-amputation with it. But now I have really got the hang of it, and enjoy pretending to be Paul Bunyan out in the yard splitting logs. Here is a pic of one of our piles of split logs...

Krista has become quite the expert on getting a good fire going. She knows just what size kindling she needs, and which logs to put in first, and how to arrange them. Most cold winter nights, I come home to a nice warm fire in our small fireplace. This is not just for ambiance, but is very practical. Compared to most American houses, our house is quite small at about 900 square feet. Also, unlike most american fireplaces which are set in one of the exterior walls, our fireplace is right in the middle of the house, and the chimney comes up right between the three small upstairs rooms. Combined with the small size of the rooms, the fire manages to heat the entire house from a small fireplace. I guess when it comes to being very efficient with heating, "Češi umí".