JOIN ME BY THE FIRE

     Before some of you were born, or at least too young to remember, was the Blizzard of '78.  Two massive fronts came together early on a Thursday morning in January and shut down the entire Midwestern United States for at least two days.  As the wind howled and the standing seam roof on our house sounded like it might let go at any time (but never did) I looked at the warm glow of the fire in our beautiful, white Copper Clad wood burning cook stove.  I was struck by the sobering realization that if the electricity went off, that stove was all that stood between my family and freezing to death.  At that time we had owned it for less than seven years and it was now at the third house we had lived in during that time.  I had acquired it well before the "wood burning fad" of the late 1970's had set in -- another evidence that the Grace of God had led Susan and I in many choices through the years.
     Why did I acquire it?  I had the most wonderful memories of days when I, as a twelve year old, had helped Susan's dad husk corn on his farm on chilly fall days.  Susan's brothers were good friends of mine and I spent a fair amount of time on their farm and hunting with them.  On those corn husking days we could come in for the noon meal (called "dinner" by farm folks) and Susan's mom would have the most wonderful smells of delicious food cooking on a small, white wood burning cook stove in their dining room.  They did not have that stove out of necessity.  They had an electric range in the kitchen.  They just appreciated the truly finer things of life.  And besides, it heated the house in cool weather and saved that expense.  They also had a wood burning cook stove (not as nice in appearance) in a small building just behind their home called the "summer kitchen".  Where, as you guessed, food could be prepared or canned in hot weather and keep the heat out of the house. 
     This was the origin of one of President Harry Truman's sayings:  "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".  Not only did I have fond memories of the smells of food cooking on those stoves but I often recalled coming in from work or hunting in the evening, pulling up a chair, and putting cold stocking feet on the open oven door.  As the tea kettle softly sang I drifted into dreamland.  That, my friend, is life at its best.  With all those memories still fresh sixteen years later, I mentioned to my mother that I was looking for a nice cook stove.  She, in turn, mentioned it to a friend of hers and that friend said, "My dad still has the stove he bought for mom around 40 years ago".  That was not unusual.  What was unusual was that the stove had been kept in excellent condition.  Many families, when they obtained a gas or electric stove, moved the cook stove to a barn or shed and let it rust.  These folks had moved it to a nice dry room behind their kitchen and there it sat for 22 years until I bought it one spring day in 1971 for $65.  Two of my students from MCS helped me move it. 
     At that time we lived on a farm on Woodville Road southeast of Mansfield.  There was a nice room on one end of a machinery shed with a concrete floor.   Even though Susan was only about two months away from having our first child she helped me clean and fix up that room and make it into a summer kitchen.  She put curtains on the windows, we got a table and chairs, and brought in our 'new' Copper Clad' stove.  My friend Charlie Atkins would come in the evenings and the two of us would sit and talk by the warm glow of that stove.  He told me that his father had said, "Copper Clad stoves are the best".  Next year we moved over onto a farm on Hanley Road and placed the stove on a porch off the kitchen.  Two years later we remodeled the kitchen and moved the Copper Clad into the kitchen.  It warmed us during the record breaking cold of the winter of '76-'77.  In the five years since we had bought the Copper Clad all three of our children were born.  In August of '77 we moved into the first home of our own here in Knox County and the Copper Clad found a place in the dining room.  There was a sound, safe brick chimney to connect the stove with. There it not only warmed us during that terrible blizzard of '78 but continued to warm us and cook hundreds of meals until the turn of this century.  More about that in a moment
     After one year at our own home God enable us to build an addition on the back.  We now needed another stove to go on the opposite end of the house. We built the safest chimney possible with cement block and clay tile liner. A new company had begun in Vermont (Vermont Castings) and the founder Duncan Symns  had designed a stove that was soon to make all other wood burning heating (not cooking) stoves inferior and/or obsolete.  That was the legendary Vermont Castings Defiant, the first all cast iron, air tight, stove ever made in America.  It had the long flame path and all the features to make it twice as efficient (not to mention more attractive) as previous stoves.  We bought one for our new addition and used it until we moved two years ago.  Our new home (next door) has the smaller version called the Vermont Castings Vigilant.  We sometimes miss having a cook stove.  Currently (2022) Vermont Castings has changed hands so many times that anyone looking for a good stove should get one of their older stoves that has been kept in good condition by a pevious owner.
   In the summer of '78, after the big blizzard, my parents wanted a cook stove like ours to go with their new Vermont Castings Defiant.  I knew an older couple in Wayne County who had a beautiful Home Comfort cook stove.  In their day the Home Comfort stoves were even more expensive than Copper Clad and had more 'bells and whistles'.  This lady's husband had just passed away and she sold me the Home Comfort which I bought for my parents.  About 15 years ago they gave it back to me and my daughter and her husband inherited the Copper Clad.  They moved into a new home last year and, with no place for the Copper Clad, they left it with me.  It is stored in a nice, dry place.  My youngest son Clayton has what was once his grandparents' Home Comfort Stove. 
     For the first time in many years of using wood burning stoves our insurance company is charging a 'penalty' of around $160 extra on homeowners insurance for having one.  I understand why.  Many homes have been burned because of improper stove installation or inferior chimneys.  Our chimney is the Chim-Tek, which is by far and away the safest chimney design, materials and construction to be had.  I would not think of having any other type or kind of chimney. With such a safe chimney one must then be sure that there is a safe hearth on which to place the stove and that the stove is far enough away from anything combustible.

   Vermont Castings stoves have thermostatically controlled dampers to keep them from overheating.  There are no 100% guarantees against having a fire in a home but I believe our installation comes the closest.  I have installed and used stoves for 51 years with no incident at all and with perfect comfort and safety. Once, however, on an early spring day I put the Definant stove in the long flame path mode and we went away for awhile. There was an air inversion in the chimney because of the spring weather and much smoke came back in the house. The walls had to be washed but there was no danger otherwise. In "milder" cool weather I now always leave the stove in the "updraft" position with the thermostat set accordingly.

     Additional safety measures involve using only sound, dry hardwoods as fuel and having a magnetic thermostat on the stove.  Do not burn too "cool". Below 300 degrees will tend to cause creosote buildup in the chimney; a great fire risk.  Much over 400 is too hot for safety.  If ashes are removed when hot they must go into a tight metal container and placed outside the house, otherwise one has to wait several days after a fire is out to remove them.  Stoves that burn only on "updraft", or connecting a stove to closely to the chimney, both tend to create chimney fires because the flames are directly entering the chimney.  This is another reason Vermont Castings Stoves are the best and safest.  When the temperature on the stove thermometer goes over 300 we turn it on "side (or long) draft".  Stoves must be watched and observed carefully to use them safely and efficiently. 
     I have sought in this blog to give some practical help.  But, what about the references to fire in the Bible?  The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said our God is a consuming fire.  Just like physical fire that works both ways.  Fire can warm, comfort, nourish and preserve our lives.  When foolishly or wickedly misused it can destroy our property and our lives.  My relationship to the Living God -- The Consuming Fire -- is my life, my comfort, my nourishment, my all in all.  But if someone foolishly rebels against Him, mocks Him, or wages war against Him, that person will, in that word from John 3:16, perish.  The books of Daniel and Revelation speak of a river of fire flowing out from the throne of God and of a sea of glass shot through with fire before the throne of God.
      You, and I, are going to one of two places for eternity.  Both of them are places where there is 'fire'.  The One Who is called 'a consuming fire' has called me to be His own and I will be nourished, sustained, and thrilled in His Presence for ever and ever.  The delightful fires in these stoves of ours all these years are a foretaste of that.  C.S. Lewis said that the person who spends their life without ever sincerely saying, "Thy will be done", will someday hear the Voice that will say, "Very well, your will be done.  You have not wanted my Presence; now you may have your choice and be shut out forever".   Jesus Himself called that destiny "eternal fire".