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From 12-11-07: Yesterday a stove; Today firewood.

The cord wood room was coming to completion and we were still without a stove to heat it with. Craigslist, ebay, and local newspapers only had dead ends; the stoves listed were either too expensive, too far away, too big or already sold. I had asked a few people locally if they knew anyone with a stove for sale, but in vain. We were ready to buy a stove that we didn’t really want, but first decided to spend half an hour more calling neighbors and friends before giving in to the inevitable.

To my surprise, within fifteen minutes, a supportive neighbor had called back. A neighbor of his had an old wood burning stove in her attic.

The stove was tucked in the back corner of the attic, behind styrofoam peanuts, a 1950’s baby carriage, army cots, and a cream separator. The family had made their living milking dairy cows, until the 1990s, when prices of milk dropped too low to make it worthwhile. She offered us the cream separator and I hope that we will have a reason to buy it in the not so distant future.

We uncovered a beautiful little stove. Perfect for our needs. You never know what a neighbor might have in their attic, garage, or ditch. It’s a lesson in country living. Networking with your neighbors is often the best way to find treasures.

Once you have a stove (and we now have three!), you need firewood. And our supplies are running out fast. This time, Mother Nature, not the neighbors came to call.

An ice storm struck last night and I woke up to a crystallized world. I also woke up to infrequent, but tremendous crashes. The trees, heavy with ice, were loosing large branches, and in some cases, entire trees fell. At first, I was struck with horror and sadness, especially as I drove through town and saw house after house littered with branches. Then, my thoughts took to another direction: What is going to happen to all that wonderful wood? That’s when I realized that our firewood question had been answered.

It won’t help us until all this ice melts, but at least every cloud has a silver lining.

2 Comments

  1. Sasha

    Hi guys, have you ever heard about masonry stoves? They are really nice things and I can imagine that you would be very happy with one. Check this out, lot of material to read, you can basically learn how to make one here: http://www.appropedia.org/Masonry_stoves

    Cheers, Sasha

  2. B

    We are definately interested in Masonary Stoves. A local friend of a friend’s life mission is to spread the use of these stoves and if we supply the materials (CEB bricks!), he could help us build one.