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I went to a friend’s house the other night and she led me into her den where her best wood stove was and she sighed and said, ‘And this is where I live.’
It’s been a long winter and a lot of us have spent the better part of four months huddled around our stoves. I walked around Calais and asked people to talk about their firebuilding methods, their stoves, and their moods.
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The Kindling Kit needs to be patented. Beautiful piece for this great, long winter.
God did I need that. Thank you.
Really enjoyed this piece – a nice break from this exhausting winter. Thank you.
From south of the Mason-Dixon Line I came to Vermont twenty-years-plus-one-winter ago to be with my Beloved. I did not speak Fire. I did not speak Woodstove. Now I understand them fluently. This story made me both smile and shed a little tear this morning. It gave me comfort, like a good warm fire, and hope, like a song about sun, and held me close, like family. Lovely Saturday morning.
Erica should have interviewed me but it would have reminded her what an eccentric her father really is.
I am proud ( or possibly now sheepish) to say that I / we were a pioneers of sorts in the renaissance of wood burning in the early 1970s.
I was such a zealot that at one point I was running four wood stoves which meant that I was able to do almost nothing but start, feed, and patrol the stoves lest one go out or one get out of control and burn down the house killing us all.
And all this just to keep the poorly insulated, 1844 farmhouse at a bone chilling 50 degrees — too cold for parents or friends to visit — at least a second time.
After listening to this wonderful piece, I am kind of nostalgic about all “Those wood burning days”, but then I remember all the cutting and splitting and lugging and stacking and my nostalgia goes away.
Thanks again Erica. Another great reminder of what I miss most about my time in Vermont- the humor and hardiness of the people. As tough as winter has been we know spring will be here.
Great piece. Thanks again!
We had Jotul stoves that always burned from front to back. We never got them as hot as I’d have liked. In fact, you could even sit on the stove occasionally. I think my husband was afraid of a chimney fire so we erred on the side of safety. We did a lot of standing by the stove, very close to it.
I remember one late afternoon after my 6 year old daughter came downstairs, carrying her pjs, stark naked , after her “tubbie”, wanting the warmth from the stove .I think it was in putting on her pjs that she bent over and I heard a sizzling noise as her still- wet buttocks came in contact with the lip of the firebox, creating a red line across her but. I wonder if, at 45, that line is still there….?
It is.
Great piece,Erica,as good as “eating soup on a cold day”. I really enjoyed the humor and hearing all the different ways Vermonters are trying to stay warm and SANE during this long winter……signed, a teepee person
Rosana, did you go to school at Colegio Internacional de Caracas in Venezuela?- Annette Omaña
Just listened to “Woodstove” episode. I never knew there were “tent” people vs “cabin” people.
I didn’t either, until I did that show. I discovered that I’m a tent person, and I’m beginning to think that cabin people are far more practical(successful)….
I found this podcast while splitting wood and it made me smile listening to everyone’s diverse methods to light fires, amount of wood to load in the fire, time of year to cut wood, etc. I don’t know anyone in the podcast, but the story made me feel a certain kinship with everyone of them through the burning of wood and the feelings it evokes.