Unless you’re now to the blog, you’ve heard us quejarse (complain) a bunch about how we’re cold all the time. As of today, though, that problem is HISTORY. Our stove is here!
After nearly 2 months in transit, it arrived at the post office while we were in the US. As we passed through Santa Eulalia on the way home Monday, we picked it up. Oh, how sweet it is. It only weighs about 40 pounds, and the design is very clever- all the parts, including a special tapered nesting chimney, fit inside the body of the stove. I am totally getting one of these for my yurt when I get back to the US.
Our first job was to put it together, load it, and light it up- in the front yard. You see, the factory-applied paint has to bake on the rest of the way with the first firing, and it gives off a lot of stink that you don’t want in your house. So, here we are, enhancing our image as “weird white people that do totally inexplicable things.” Never mind that we tried to explic to everyone who wandered by; they didn’t get it.
That evening was torturous to Emily, who was cold but KNEW that our stove was sitting right outside, doing us no good. So, at first light the next day, i sprang into action, breaking stuff and causing a general mess so that I could install the chimney. I cut a hole in the wall, and made a sheetmetal orifice for the stovepipe to keep the heat clear from our highly combustible, made-from-kindling wall. They only sold sheetmetal in giant coils in town, so I ended up buying a sheetmetal bucket for Q20 (about $3) and cutting it apart with aviation shears in my Peace Corps (TM) Tool Kit. Check out the rain diverter hat I made for the stovepipe, too: it’s the bottom of the bucket, cut and pulled into a cone. Then I riveted it together with some nails that I cut short, and attached clips I made from scraps of the bucket. See, grad school for metalsmithing IS applicable to third-world development work after all!
Of course, there are always hitches. This morning we opened the stove to find 1″ of water in the bottom. I guess my rain diverter wasn’t quite perfect after all. A quick trip up the ladder and a little bending set that right, however. The harder part was getting the stove started again. By the time she’d bailed it out, removed the wet coals, put new wood in, and restarted it, Emily was pretty annoyed. Luckily the stove makes coffee, too, otherwise the honeymoon would already be over.
As I type, it’s in the 40s outside and drizzling, but I am quite toasty and comfortable. We’ve already had several people over, and they’ve all concluded that it is indeed comfy in here. Getting the kids to leave is now REALLY hard. We can even dry laundry in our house now, simply by putting the clothesline in the vicinity of the stove. Before, we could expect to wear the same clothes for weeks if we got caught doing laundry at the beginning of a rainy spell.
Here we are, enjoying our stove with the neighbor kids. Now all this is left is to thank Rich Tuck at The Wall Tent Shop for giving us a discount and being so helpful throughout the process. Also, we want to thank the friends that pitched in to help us. You guys rock.