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12/14/2006: "The Quest for the Woodstove: It's Over!"

The stove is finally in! It took two days of installation, but we have had our first fire!



It's in, but my! it was an ordeal.

Installer and his Son showed up on the first day and expressed some shock that it was a two story farmhouse with a steep roof. After they came to terms with yes, they would have to go up on that roof, the prepared to get to work. But after a very few minutes of scratching their heads, they told us that it would be difficult, but not impossible, for them to install the chimney Kurt had bought. "We're just not used to working with this system" they said, "I'm sure we could figure it out, but it'd take a while." They proposed we use their system, which they had not brought with them. So, to try and make things go smoothly, we told them to go ahead with using their system, if they were more comfortable with that. A few remarks were made by Installer about "if I were just familiar with this project beforehand, it would go a lot faster..." To which I would suggest, if manners allowed, that he might do his homework before showing up on the jobsite. Anyways, off to Salem they went to get it.
What a mess was in the kitchen!

They were back three hours later and seemed to make some slow progress.

Just kidding, Installer and Son made it further than that! When they left at 7pm, they had made it through the second floor and into the attic. Encountering problems in the attic, we supplied them with 2x4s with which to buttress the chimney. They planned on tackling the roof first thing in the morning. But they didn't make it back the next day until after noon!

They set to work, with Nate and I alternating between being available to answer questions and trying to be unavailable so we weren't in the way. We came home Wednesday afternoon from a trip into Albany to the query, "Do you know your roof is leakin'?" Not seriously, but a small amount of dampness around an area where there had previously been a chimney. And apparently he had lost our cell number, or didn't think to call us. Golly gee. They didn't have shingles with them, so off Nate and I went back into Albany to the fabled Home Depot. Now I stay as far away from "megastores" as possible, and HD gives me the screaming heebiegeebies. As to be expected, the box of material right underneath the shingle display turned out not to be shingles, rather a tar paper. But we didn't discover that until we got home, opened the box and Installer asked "Now what is that?" So Nate and I sheepishly returned to the store and bought real shingles. It was getting dark by the time we got back, so Nate and I set about our chores. We could see though, in the gathering dark, that Son was on the roof, tied with a safety line that was "anchored" to the rather percarious white picket fence in the yard....

Our friend Esther joined us for the evening, wanting to visit the ducks and brush up on her milking skills, as well as sit around the fire. We three sat in the livingroom, trying to have a normal conversation while various screeching and pounding noises floated down the stairwell. It was difficult trying to have an everyday routine, like eating dinner, when strangers were in the house. My urge was to feed and entertain them, being newcomers in my home, but I resisted. But I couldn't quite bring myself to prepare or eat any meals in front of them. So it was a hungry couple of evenings. Installer gave us the go ahead to light the stove around 7:00, but we elected to wait until they left before we started it up, which was about 8:15. We thanked them profusely as they left, breathing a sigh of relief that it was over!

The stove stank a fair amount as the paints and varnishes set in the heat. But we gathered round after the milking anyways, grateful for the warmth and the end of the adventure.

I bought myself a nice ol' Granny rocker. It's unpainted, so I get to have my usual painting fun with it. Last night we pulled four chairs up around the stove, playing musical chairs so everyone had a chance to sit in the rocker.

Esther came over again, and Mark came to visit as well. We cooked up a goose that our dear neighbor Ed had shot and given us as a gift. It was pretty tasty, and we're cooking up goose broth as I type!


The lights just flickered and it seems a major storm is afoot. So it's very comforting that we're here in this house with a big warm source of heat. I'm going to throw some cornbread in the oven and see if I can keep from burning it. We'll have it with our bubbling goose soup. I'll sit in the rocker, and if the lights go out we'll giggle and throw another log in the fire box.