speaking the truth

The first time I met my in-laws was in the middle of winter. They lived in South Dakota and heated the house with a wood stove but (that year anyway) had not stockpiled much wood. I remember driving through snowstorms with my father-in-law to "harvest" deadfall on the sides of the roads, for hours. We went out about every other day. Finding sufficient wood on the edge of the Deadlands is tricky, especially since most trees are behind fences and owned by others, so it was a matter of scavenging along the one-lane roads. This necessity did not endear my father-in-law to me. (He was an ignorant and arrogant man who was sexist to boot. So his lack of forethought and planning was just the icing on the cake.)