Me! Provider!

Of course like all Alpha males I need nothing more than an opportunity to get out and provide for myself using just my native wits, strength, guile and some meaty powertools. For a long time I went out and fought the other rats in the race but since shifting my lifestyle to one slightly more precarious one I have more opportunities to rely on skills other than driving for hours in appalling traffic so that I can sit and play Solitare until the wheels come off some piece of kit that I can't fix. Being an IT Manager can be well paid but it's not unlike Russian Roulette at times.

Anyway. Now I have different opportunities to be a hunter gatherer. During the spring a lightening strike took down an old tree along the lane and it hit one of the overhead powerlines. (Hum "Wichita Lineman" for effect now) and the South East Electricity Board (SEEBoard) sent out the linemen to sort it out - the lights flickered but didn't die which was good as it would have been dark in the pub which is where I was at the time but I digress. They shifted the felled tree and left it at the side of the lane so a few days later I went out with my trolley and dragged back the tree and branches and left them on the log shelter to dry out. A few weeks ago I let them meet Mr Chainsaw and after a few hours of hard (but fun) graft I had a nice big pile of logs, an aching back and a garden covered in sawdust.

Now, as the nights draw in and the drafts gust under the doors I have a fire all set and waiting to light - stocked with logs that I went and found and cut and split myself! Photographic evidence with a basket full of hand-crafted logs is shown and you'll also spot the canalware bellows, candles (who ever thought I'd own a candle plate?), the champagne bottle isn't there to be flash - it's full of water as I use it to top up the iron, a pile of newspapers on the right and above it the triangular basket with the matches.

So there you are. Even in this knowledge economy there are times when the world is a little wilder and sustinance can be hewn from the countryside (a bit over the top perhaps? :-))