"Those cedar chips smell good on the fire

 Mary Ann. You and cousin Mary worked all day gathering the chips from the boards we took out of those cedar logs."

"Yes, and the wood is the kind that makes colorful flames, too."

"I'm going to need to fill that woodshed out back with firewood - it is shaping up to be a long, cold winter, and the ground is already frozen hard."

"I thought people said we could have a nice long mild autumn here in Oregon."

"I guess nobody has seen this kind of freeze, so early here, in living memory."

"But James, if the ground is frozen, how will the stock get to the grass? If they can't get to the grass, then what will we feed them?"

"That is what everyone is asking themselves, little wife. Jacob Thompson just stopped by to tell me that some of the settlers are feeding their cattle the moss on the trees. I'm told that as soon as the tree is chopped down, the cattle and even the horses rush for the moss."

Public Domain - from the U S Forest Service in the Willamette National Forest

* Source for the story of moss feeding the cattle:
The Oregon Statesman, Salem, Oregon, Tuesday Morning, September 3,  1929, "Bits for Breakfast", by R. J. Hendricks, story recounted by Col. William Thompson.