The Campfire Trail: January 4 DIY Homestead - It WASN'T the Wood Stove's Fault

January 4, 2023

Day 460 of the Adventure

The Wood Stove Now Behaving Itself

Shelley was awakened at 5am this morning by me shouting; "GET ME A LIGHT!" I was in the middle of my 5am feeding (of the wood stove) although a 5am feeding actually sounds kind of good to me...... I'll have to give that some thought. But back to the wood stove feeding. At 5am I had just placed a piece of firewood in the stove and went to close the door and the upper hinge pin popped out. This caused the door to drop at a wonky angle and not close at all. There I sat in the dark on my milk crate seat, hanging onto the door handle and trying to hold it as closed as I could get it. At that moment, I could not tell exactly what had happened other than the door was hanging crooked on the stove allowing smoke to escape. "GET ME A LIGHT" was all I could think of. Shelley jumped, rolled over and declared, "I don't have a light!".......... That wasn't helpful. "I NEED A LIGHT!" Hanging onto the door handle with one hand and sweeping around the floor with the other for a flashlight that I knew was there somewhere, probably looked fairly comical if you could actually have seen it. Being completely dark other than the flickering light from the fire, only the sounds of modest panic were detectible. By the time I found the light and got it turned on, Shelley was there asking why I needed a light. I was tempted to just say, "Never mind. Go back to bed" However, the light revealed the cause and now I also needed a hot pad holder, screwdriver and hammer.

Holding the door as "in place" as possible, I began to try wrestling it back into place where it belonged. Using the hot pad holder from the kitchen to grab the hinge side of the door, Yes, it was very hot, I began to realign the hinges, using my third hand for that and my fourth hand to replace the hinge pin where it belonged. Soon, it was back together and working properly. I had recently noticed the door acting a little stiff and noisy when opening it. I had never really thought to look it over closely to see why. Evidently the constant opening and closing had worked the upper hinge pin up out of the hinge enough to where me lifting on the handle popped it loose. Of course, wood stoves and other mechanical devices love to wait until the dark of night to conduct their mischief. The dark of night gives them the psychological edge needed to catch their victims in a complete state of confusion, disorientation and panic. Their final victory is that even when the catastrophe is averted, the wide-eyed effects of it live on to the rising of the sun preventing any hopes of additional sleep from occurring.

For now, the stove is back to behaving itself as it should. Although I'm pretty sure I caught it glancing over at the air compressor I have sitting in the corner, winking at it and chuckling. The air compressor, which by the way, has a mischievous habit of own of turning itself on in the dead of night. I'm just positive that it has brought it's evil influence to bear on the stove. I'll obviously need to separate the two of them. The sooner the better too! I may need to move the entire collection of tools from that corner of the cabin.......

It's always something!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “One mischief always introduces another.” ― Daniel Defoe

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