The little stove that could

 

Remember me? I'm the little stove that could!

To date I've come down into the basement more times that I'd like to admit and nearly frozen to death since fall began! We've yet to leave the fan  (connected to the AC and furnace) on all night to circulate the air throughout the entire house so it winds up COLD down here all the time. I (almost) dread coming down and have to go up about once an hour to warm up.

Yesterday I got the house up to a toasty 70 degrees and had the fan on to circulate all that warm air, had a fire going all night last night and this morning? SUCCESS! It's WARM down here. I don't know what the actual air temperature is but the concrete floor is 68 and that's sayin' something if the concrete is 68! That, to us, feels warm and I am thrilled.

The stove is rated for about 1400 sq. feet. The house with the basement is about 1700 sq. feet. so it's workin' it's little heart out! We've been brainstorming ideas to get the heat from the living room into the hallway so the central fan can pick it up and disperse it. So far we're just using a  box fan at the doorway to direct the heat into the hall. The blower does a pretty good job at propelling the inferno into the center of the room and the ceiling fan throws it down to the floor where the box fan picks it up and heaves it into the hallway...it's a whole network we've got workin' here!

Our first thought was to put a vent in the ceiling with HVAC piping going to the intake but Jeremiah's afraid, even with insulated HVAC pipe, it will loose a lot of heat in the short distance it has to travel in the attic which, no doubt, is freezing! We've considered doorway fans and that's an option but I've also seen "through the wall fans", for lack of a better term, that are vents with built in little fans you install in walls up near the ceiling in two adjoining rooms.They're a possibility. Once the air is into the hallway the central fan picks it up just fine.

For now, our little stove that could certainly is doing a tremendous job. We just have the hot water heater running off the propane and in the almost 4 months we've been here we've only gone through such a small amount. It was at 70% full when we moved in August 13 and it's hovering around 56% full to date. We've been burning wood like crazy for about the past month but that's something we have plenty of! And it's free...sort of. I mean, short of the 3rd chainsaw we had to buy because of the others disappearing from school, the gasoline and the back breaking loving & satisfying labor we've needed to do get this "free" fuel, I'd say it's a fair trade.


Course, I mentioned to Jeremiah the other night that it's strangely peculiar that whenever he gets home from work to tend to the fire until bedtime there is always more wood waiting in the house to  feed it. Yet, when I wake up in the morning, oddly enough, there isn't a scrap left and I have to go out into the cold in my pajamas no less, well, sometimes less but that's probably way too much information, anyway...go out into the cold and get more wood! Why is that? This morning, finally, there was extra wood inside. So,I guess, my little bit of prodding was fruitful.

The other day we were out cutting wood by the road and there he is with the chainsaw felling the trees and cutting them into manageable sections and there I am splitting the wood. By afternoon I had a very generous pile started. With just a few more legs, I mean, logs to split, here he comes to take over so I could go feed the goats and I am walking away thinking, "Now, wait a minute...everyone that passes is going to think "big strong man chop wood" and yet I am sure no one thinks, behind every good man there is an equal (ahem::or better::ahem) woman who split all that dang wood in the first place!" On top of that...there he was running the chainsaw for about 2 hours, seemingly not as labor intensive work as manually splitting with an axe, and all the people driving by are probably thinking, "good grief, what kinda man allows his wife to be out there doing all the heavy work!?". My man, that's who, lazy good for nothin'! Just kidding, I like manually splitting wood and if you know us, you know that we work side by side...there's something oddly satisfying about it! Chopping wood that is. Well, working side by side is too but anyway. My shoulder doesn't think chopping wood manually is at all oddly satisfying the next day of course, but my motto while chopping is live in the moment forget about tomorrow. HA!

But back to the stove...I almost feel like naming our stove. In fact, I think I will. I dub thee Thomas, the little stove that could! Thomas keeps me, er, us, warm. I  light Thomas' fire. But then, so does Jeremiah so maybe Thomas should be called something more gender neutral in nature...Nah! He burns with um, wood. The spark within our relationship is breath taking. Yes, Thomas you are built so strong. You may not be tall, but you are dark and handsome. You abound with radiant heat and are always right there when I we need you to warm our buns on and steam up the place with boiling...water in the kettle. Even in the middle of the night I we are willing to feed the inferno burning within you, and you feeds my our souls with incandescent flames. The tender tinder required for your glow is so small but the embers that remain long after the blazing explosion has died down is heart hearth warming. Thomas, I know our relationship your flames will no longer be needed when the warmth of spring returns. Please don't think of me us as fair weather friends. You will always be a prominent figure within our home.  I we know you will be there for us when we beckon your combustion once again and we will always be there to light your fire. What would we do without you Thomas? You're a hunka hunka burning heavy piece of cast iron!