12 Things Old Loggers Did to the Stove Before the First Hard Freeze (Or Paid for It in January)
Harlan Sawyer
4,552 views
The weatherman said "frost" for the first time this year, and the stove is still full of
April's ash. That's about a $340 decision in Pocahontas County this fall: a sweep, a new
elbow, and a cord of wasted wood. Every dollar of it gets decided in the two weeks before
the first hard freeze.
I'm Harlan Sawyer. Forty-two years in the timber, 1969 to 2011. The old camps called these
two weeks "putting the stove up," and my grandfather Enoch wrote every piece of it in a
scaler's tally book he carried from 1931 until the winter he died.
Twelve pieces. None over forty dollars, none over a Saturday morning:
the pipe comes apart (and which way the crimp goes) - the dollar bill on the gasket - all
the ash out and the bricks checked - three screws and cement on the seams - the cap and
the screen - every handle, full travel - the porch rick - a bucket of kindling before you
need it - thirty-six inches and what crept in - two detectors and new batteries - the
Saturday fire - and reading the draft with a match, the one that catches everything else.
Plus what Enoch found in one elbow of a bunkhouse pipe above Durbin in October of 1946.
Tell me your state, what you burn, and how old the stove is. The one that gets the most
stories is the one I go deep on next.
Stack it dry, friend. It keeps.
Sources mentioned: Chimney Safety Institute of America (1/8" creosote), EPA Burn Wise
(20% moisture), NFPA 211 (clearances), CDC (CO detectors). Not your fire marshal; if your
stove came with a manual, follow it too.
#woodstove #firewood #woodheat #homestead #oldways
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12 Things Old Loggers Did to the Stove Before the First Hard Freeze (Or Paid for It in January)
Harlan Sawyer
4,552 views
The weatherman said "frost" for the first time this year, and the stove is still full of
April's ash. That's about a $340 decision in Pocahontas County this fall: a sweep, a new
elbow, and a cord of wasted wood. Every dollar of it gets decided in the two weeks before
the first hard freeze.
I'm Harlan Sawyer. Forty-two years in the timber, 1969 to 2011. The old camps called these
two weeks "putting the stove up," and my grandfather Enoch wrote every piece of it in a
scaler's tally book he carried from 1931 until the winter he died.
Twelve pieces. None over forty dollars, none over a Saturday morning:
the pipe comes apart (and which way the crimp goes) - the dollar bill on the gasket - all
the ash out and the bricks checked - three screws and cement on the seams - the cap and
the screen - every handle, full travel - the porch rick - a bucket of kindling before you
need it - thirty-six inches and what crept in - two detectors and new batteries - the
Saturday fire - and reading the draft with a match, the one that catches everything else.
Plus what Enoch found in one elbow of a bunkhouse pipe above Durbin in October of 1946.
Tell me your state, what you burn, and how old the stove is. The one that gets the most
stories is the one I go deep on next.
Stack it dry, friend. It keeps.
Sources mentioned: Chimney Safety Institute of America (1/8" creosote), EPA Burn Wise
(20% moisture), NFPA 211 (clearances), CDC (CO detectors). Not your fire marshal; if your
stove came with a manual, follow it too.
#woodstove #firewood #woodheat #homestead #oldways