Keeps the home fires burning

Last August Chase and I moved into a small little farmhouse tucked back in Mountain Valley. The place needed fixing up, which we took on ourselfs for a discounted price (some months were free we did so much) on rent from our landlord. The place had this awful gas burning stove as its main heat source, and Chase and his father inspected the chimney and found we could replace it with a wood stove to heat the house, after a little work was done of course.

I was all for it! After the initial cost of buying a stove, the piping, etc...its basically free heat I thought! You can't beat that! ...well its free if you consider your time free of charge. Heating your whole home (even one as little as ours) with nothing but the heat from a wood stove isn't easy. Last night, as I sat up watching Chase try for an hour to get a decent fire going from some wet (late in the season) wood at 12:30a.m., I kept thinking to myself, in the movies they make a wood stove seem some romantic and perfect...and I can tell you that that is just the exterior they portray. Now don't get me wrong, I love our wood stove to death. The saying "there's no heat like a wood stove's heat" is no lie. We lost power recently during a big snow storm and it wasn't a bother at all. The charm and character it adds to the little farm house is perfect too. I love the primitive way of providing for yourself , but it's not easy work. Not easy one bit.

I'm beyond thankful to have a mountain man in my life who takes care of the fire almost 100% of the time. I've made plently of fires myself, and did keep it going for a week by myself over Christmas, but he takes good care of me and "keeps the home fires burning" (good song, go give it a listen, done by Ronnie Milsap...I edited the lyrics a little). I would say he spends a least 15% of his day keeping that thing going so the house stays warm. After all that is said and done you have the basics to the work, you have the wood...

Countless trips to the mountain to cut down trees...than cut them up...split them into logs...load it on the trucks...bring it home and load it off again... then stack it up...and  end with the hauling daily of it in the house (oh the mess it makes on the carpet, my poor vacuum). We've gone through countless cords of wood. Thats wood stacked 4 feet wide by 8 feet long by 4 feet high....a lot of wood. Chase, his father, his friends, and me have all contributed to the wood we've had this year...I'm hoping this last round will do us in, but the way its been snowing, you can't be too sure. One thing is for sure, Chase has once again shown me through this winter his ability to work, and provide for me. He's not one to shy away from hard word, and I'm so thankful to have him in my life. The country home doesn't run with out the work from the man and the old woman. Old woman is a good title where I'm from, it means he wants ya as his one and only. ;)

We got our stove from a lady off craigslist. We drove over the mountain and picked her up looking just like she is here. Chase ended up doing some research on it and found out our stove is a mix between two models Fisher made, and the only place to manufacture these miss-sized stoves was a factory in West Virginia. The orginal owners before the lady we brought it from was an old couple who bought it brand new and had it for over 20 years.

Chase's dad is mason who does stone and brick work along with other trades, and him and Chase built us this hearth for the stove. All 800 pounds of stove, yes the day we brought it in I was afraid for my floors, and afraid for us and the stove going through them! This picture doesn't do it justice. It's a beautiful design and once again was basically gifted to us through hard work and their time.

After the chimney was cleaned out real good by Chase and his dad (I wish I pictures of them covered in soot haha) They put in a new stove pipe and fixed it all up. Chase spent a good while painting and cleaning up the stove till it shined like brand new. He does have a nack for the painting and fixing up.

This was our first pile of wood, which I helped split (lets talk a work out). I remember being so sure that would last for such a long time. Was I wrong. I never knew how quickly you can go through some wood when it's your only source of heat.

The first fire ever built, by us, in the stove. Back in the early fall/winter we put a fire in all the time, now when its just touching 60 degrees out we don't. Not sure if we've got immune to the cold, or greedy with burning our wood.

I will say the photographer in me has loved this lifestyle. I love capturing the feel of it. It seems to carry an older and respected way a life with it. Those trees were burning have been around for decades and they carry more history then I can even begin to imagine.