Internet Problems,,,,Again

Another tractor trailer drove down our road and ripped the phone line off of the pole yesterday. For a change the line wasn't ripped off the house. I was at work all day long, but my daughter said the line was hanging in the road and cars were driving under it. Then a school bus came along and someone lifted the line up so the bus could drive underneath. The fire police came and cut the line and coiled it up in our front yard, much to the chagrin of the tech who came today to fix the line. He said the police could have called it in as an emergency then Verizon would have dispatched someone right away (yeah right.) 

The tech who came out today was the same one who fixed the line in August. He only comes to Berks County 12-15 times a year so he was surprised to be back at our place. He was able to move the wire up the pole about a foot and that also tightened up the wire so hopefully it won't get snagged again. The only good part about having the phone line disconnected was the lack of internet on election night. It was nice to not be able to get caught up in all the political drama.

Telephone Troubles

We've had a service tech from Verizon out three times since the beginning of December. The process of calling to report a problem is not very user friendly. It is nearly impossible to talk to a live person. The computer runs a test on your line and tells you if the problem appears to be in your house or on the line outside. The first time we called the computer said the problem was outside. Great, so send someone to fix it. Yup, in 8 days. Ok, so he fixes the problem. Hmmm, two weeks later we can make calls but can't receive any. Call again, computer says the problem is inside our house. Really? We tested the outside line at the port in the junction box in the basement. Couldn't receive any calls there so the problem is in the outside line. Computer asks "Do you still want a service call placed? If the problem is in your house you will receive a bill." Why, of course we want a service call because we know the problem is outside. OK, another 8 day wait for a service call. My husband takes off work and they never show up. Finally, three more days later the tech comes, says the line coming into the house has a short in it and he replaces the line. Phone now works great, thanks.

Fast forward another 2 1/2 weeks. A tractor trailer (one of many) gets lost and ends up trying to turn around in the intersection at our house. He is told to turn around at the next intersection since it is a little larger. After he turns around and is heading out he snags our new phone line. Rips it off the house, out of the basement, and pulls the junction box off the joist it was attached to. Now we once again have no phone and now also no internet. Another service call to Verizon. Guess what? The computer says the problem is in our house! Really!!!! I was thinking it had something to do with the large coil of phone line in our neighbor's front yard that used to be attached to our house. Amazingly, the computer says someone will come to fix our phone in two days! And they actually show up when scheduled! The tech puts up a line, puts a splice before the house so that will break off first if the line gets snagged again, but puts the old junction box, which is now broken, back up in the basement. We no longer have a port to test the line, so no way of knowing if the problem is outside or inside the house the next time the phone stops working.

Unfortunately, where we live we have no choice in phone or internet service providers. There is also no cable. And our cell phone reception is a bit sporadic inside the house so we really do need a landline, unless you like talking with your head up against a window. Wonder how long it will be until we need to make another service call?

Sometimes It's the Little Things That Make Us Happy

Ever since Alan jacked up the floors to make them level in preparation for work in the house none of the doors latch.  This is especially annoying in the bathroom and our bedroom. It appears that the doors were hung with the floors uneven; therefore, when the floor was made level none of the doors fit right.
This is an idea of how far out everything was.

The top of the door on the left above was nearly one inch too low now.  The picture of the bathroom door, below, shows how far out of alignment the strike plate and the latch were.

A little bit of work with a chisel and drill and we can finally latch, and lock, our bathroom and bedroom doors!

I still can't wait to get rid of these horrible doors, but having them function properly will help make them a little more bearable until we start the real renovations inside.

Old photos of our new house

The woman who lives across the street from our new house was born in this house before it was moved down the road.  She and her siblings were raised here and when she was newly married her parents gave her the lot across the street.  She and her husband built their house on that lot and raised their three children there.
They gave me a page of copied pictures of when the house was moved.  It looks like a happy crew working hard.  It's great to see the early origins of the house.

In the photo above you can see the original cabin in white on the right side of the picture.  I think the window is in the same place today but the door was where a corner cabinet is now.

The happy woman in the foreground is our neighbor's mother.  This is the back of the house which has since had additions added.  The double window was over the back kitchen counter top.

It was really wonderful to get a copy of these pictures.  I love seeing the progress of the house through time and can't wait to add our own progress.

I couldn't have said it better

Sometime you read something that so speaks to where you are in your life experiences that you are amazed that someone else could put into words exactly what you are feeling. I had just such an experience while reading "This Organic Life".  The book chronicles Joan Gussow's move from her old, huge Victorian home of many decades to a smaller home on the banks of the Hudson River. Their "new" house ends up needing to be demolished and a new house built on the site, but it is the site that has drawn Joan and her husband to the location any way.

"September 27- Terrible, rainy day. No work on the house, obviously. But having just come back from Piermont, I need to reflect on the astonishing change of mood that place created. Nothing more has been done. The rain prevented work today, and prevented us from being out in the garden. But the place (was it the changing weather? There was a stiff wind off the water, and the sky kept changing, going silver and gray) just made me elated. When we got back to the car, we drove out the pier to look at the wild weather and I realized my mood was totally changed.  I have been depressed for days-partly the weather, I think, but its not only that. I simply love it in Piermont. I feel so wonderful when I'm there. It's just elating to be where you can connet so intimately with the weather every day. In this big house, we know if its raining or gloomy, and sometimes at night, when I get up to pee, I can see the moon so I know whether or not its full.  But there, you are aware of every nuance, every changing cloud, you feel the weather all the time, and its wonderful, sometimes even frightening as it almost was today with the wind driving heavy waves against the peir. We are going to live there, and I'm going to love it.

Earlier in the summer, a friend who was studying landscape suggested an explanation for the deep affinity I feel for this spot.  She had encountered in the writing of a scholar Jay Appleton the idea that two qualities in the landscape were particularly reassuring to relatively helpless mammals such as humans: refuge and prospect. Refuge for hiding out, and prospect for watching out- for enemies and food. Congers (her old house) had no prospect. We never sat out on our lawn, only on the porch, and then only "in season." I had enclosed the porch view- with a grapevine and evergreens close to the house and with shrubs around the property- to protect us from the corner traffic.  But Piermont offered us both refuge (note our reluctance to lose the shelter of the old house) and prospect of the river from the terrace and from the boardwalk.  It was not merely foolhardiness, but mammalian longing that made us buy a house we had to demolish."

I could not have written my feelings about both the old house and the new any better.  People keep asking how we could leave our old house after all the work and time we spent there.  Now I just have to give them these two paragraphs to read.

And Joan's garden has been plagued with flooding.  Here are a few pictures of her garden before and after the flooding of 2010. http://joansgarden.org/  And her little town of Piermont was devastated after Hurricane Sandy.  I hope she will be able to rebuild her garden again. 

Yay, the wood stove is in!

I love my wood stove.  My husband loves our wood stove so much that we had to move it to the new house.  There was a Russo coal/wood stove with a metal flue in the new house, but it is really meant for coal first and we both agree we don't like burning coal.  Too dusty and we don't like the smell.  We really like our Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove.  Bought about 20 years ago it has been the perfect size for heating our school house. Last year we didn't turn on the heat until December 23rd, just used the wood stove to take the chill off.  We don't really know how well this new house is insulated (if at all) and don't relish paying a large oil bill.  So we are hoping we can keep the house warm mainly with the wood stove.

We had our first fire last night and we were very happy with the way the stove warmed the house.  At the old house our wood stove was in a room with 13 foot tall ceilings.  It took quite a while for the heat to start warming up the first floor, even with the ceiling fan.  In the new house we could feel the heat almost immediately.  With the addition of a small fan to blow the warm air into the rest of the house we had the kitchen up to 70 within one hour.  While going down the stairs you could feel the heat rising up.  My daughter's bedroom is above the room with the wood stove and she was warm last night.  We actually had to stop adding wood to the fire around 7PM or we would have been too warm to sleep well.

I don't think I could ever be without a wood stove.  With the weather and number of power outages we get it is necessary for heat and cooking.  I use the wood stove to help dry laundry in the winter.  I have a great floor clothes drying rack from Lehman's that works great in the winter when I want to dry clothing in front of the wood stove.  A load of laundry will dry in a couple hours and the largest size is big enough to hold two large loads.  And drying the laundry in front of the fire puts humidity into the air. 

I am not the only one who is happy to have the wood stove burning again.  Lily is too.

And for the old house, we bought the exact same stove to put back where we took this one out.  It's a couple years older but the same model.  We knew the stove would fit well and I really wanted to sell the house with a stove in place.  And no we couldn't have just put the same model stove in the new house.  My husband knew who owned our stove before us and how they took care of it and how we took care of it. He was in love with this particular stove, not just any old Vigilant!

Laundry

Boy have I taken for granted how easy it was to do the laundry at the old house.  I planned to go to the laundromat this morning, then bring the washed clothing back to the new house to hang up to dry.  Well, I realized I had no laundry detergent at the new house so I had to drive to the store to get some.  Then coming back from the laundromat I realized I had only a few clothes pins; so back into town to get clothes pins.
The laundromat was nice and clean and bright.  And only 2 other people at 9AM on a Monday morning.  Once the clothes were in the machines it was a nice half hour of reading.

 I love to hang our clothing outside.  Sheets are the best.  Nothing beats climbing into bed with sheets fresh off the line.

 My childhood memories of hanging clothing outside include watching my grandmother hang her clothes out (after using her wringer washer.)  She had a cool umbrella clothesline and solid wooden clothes pins.  So, of course, when I found similar clothes pins at the hardware store I had to get those.

As a child we didn't have a dryer until I was in 9th grade.  When it was raining we hung our clothing in the basement and I remember bringing in frozen jeans that could stand up on their own.
Hopefully, the washer will come to the new house this weekend and I will have everything I need in one place to do laundry.

So much to write about and so little time

The wild life at the new house is amazing.  This photo was taken early one morning after a light fog.  Spider webs were everywhere.  Every where you look there is life.  Between the birds, the chipmunks and squirrels, bees, butterflies, and even snakes there is always something moving, flying, singing, chirping, or buzzing. 

At first I thought these moths/butterflies had paint splotches on them, but they all couldn't have gotten into that much paint.

I am starting to get a handle on all the things growing on the property.  This plant is self-sown and planted by the previous owner everywhere.  They smell great and are pretty to look at.  We were told the plant was called "false lady's slipper" but a friend was able to find out it's called "balsam" (thanks Patty).  If any one would like seeds I probably have a bazillion!

The fall gold raspberries are coming in gradually.  The bees are eating more than we are.  The garden is about half gold raspberries.  I definitely need to make some new raspberry beds and move all the raspberries out of the vegetable garden.  Any one want any raspberry plants???

We have grapes! And they taste pretty good too.  We need to build some kind of support for them as they are using some arborvitae for supports right now.

The property is just beautiful and we are enjoying seeing it at all different times of day.  I am looking forward to fall.  We have a few trees that are just barely beginning to turn colors.
Here is our bridge over the little stream (after you pass under the huge magnolia)

And looking downstream:

And a little further downstream:

Upstream isn't as pretty; we have work to do there:

The view across the stream towards the blueberry bushes (the outhouse is hiding back there):

The apple trees, which desperately need pruning:

The cherry tree needs pruning also:

We've been able to get a little bit of work done inside.  I painted the inside of the corner cabinet, which had a paint/glaze interior.

Of course there is too much stuff inside the corner cabinet now. And I should have taken a picture with the door open.  We are getting things hung up on walls, have replaced a couple of light fixtures, and still have more stuff to take over to the new house.  But now we need to get back to work on the old place.  The septic system is getting closer, we had the perc test last week and now the system is being designed, and we've only spent $960.  Hopefully, when the system is complete so will the work on the house and we can get it on the market.

We are in (sort of)!

Settlement went off without a hitch.  The girls are all moved in, except for Max's dorm stuff, which I refuse to move twice.  She moves into the dorm on Saturday so her room at the old house should be mostly empty next weekend.  My husband spent last Saturday night here and I have spent the last 3 nights.  It's sooo quiet here!  I didn't realize how much we heard the highway at our old house, even though it is about a mile away.

Still dealing with lots of boxes and unpacking.  And we have to work out all the details in moving the animals over.  I will be happy when we can bring them to the new house.  Still so much work to do!  Can't wait for the washer as well.  But we now have phone and internet.  We didn't want to have phone but our cell reception is poor here and the only internet we could get required phone service as well, thank you Verizon.

Pictures will be coming, as soon as my computer, camera, and camera cable are in the same place!

Just 7 more days (minus a few hours)!

Things seem to be going along well with the purchase of the new house.  Settlement is 7 days minus 3 hours away and is coming up quickly.  All the finances are in order and everyone has all the paperwork they want/need.

I still have more things to take to the charity store, probably 5 more boxes, and I always seem to find more as I am packing.  I'm also taking 8 boxes of books to the newly opened used book store in Kutztown this afternoon.  What could be better than getting store credit in a book store for later while getting rid of books we no longer want now?

As I walk around outside I keep seeing plants I want to bring to the new house.  Even though there are tons of plantings and the current owners have done an amazing job with all the gardens, some of my favorite perennials are missing.  Like the dahlia's above.  While not really a perennial, I have had them in my backyard for years. They will be easy to transport as their tubers need to be dug up every fall after the first frost.

I have had purple coneflower (echinacea) for more years than I can remember, so a clump definitely needs to get dug up and transported.

Years ago I dug up a Rose of Sharon shrub/tree from my in-laws and it has made multiple offspring.  I definitely need to bring along a white one.

I can't recall if there are any phlox at the new place.  Mine are doing very well this year.  And had a cool visitor this morning.

And of course the goats are saying "please bring some of our rocks along!"

Thought I would update on how the chicks and turkeys are growing. I'm pretty sure we have one tom turkey and one hen, but the other turkey looks like a tom some days and a hen on others.  Looks like we'll just need to wait a little longer to figure out the sex of the third turkey.

Our older chicks, born early May, are getting big.  We definitely have  a rooster among that bunch.  If he makes himself useful protecting the hens he may get to stick around.  My husband heard him crow a few days ago, but I haven't heard anything yet.

The littlest chicks I got for our broody hen are also getting bigger.  Now all the chicks, and mama hen, sleep in a big heap.  And the turkeys are starting to roost at night in a tree.  Now I just have to get some new pens set up at the new place and move their houses.

13 days!!! (Or how the chickens can help with the move)

Time is going by so quickly now.  Between work, packing, painting, and working on the outside of our old house we are keeping very busy.  And still the requests for paper work keep coming from the mortgage company.  Really, you want a paper trail from the deposit from May 17th?  Well, I didn't think I would need a copy of my income tax refund check, and, by the way, you have a copy of our 2011 income tax return with the refund amount.  Isn't that enough??? No, they want a copy of the check, and documentation of the cash as well and where it came from!!!  Can I say how much I hate banks right now?

Packing, packing and more packing.  And another pile of boxes of things to donate.  But it is finally getting to the fun part where you start to see a difference.  My youngest and I stripped wallpaper from the walk-in closet in the master bedroom (long story how  it ended up with wallpaper) then I painted that closet and the other one in the master bedroom.  Looks so much better.  My brain is churning with designs for closet organizers.

The front porch is almost done.  We just need to wash the ceiling and see if it needs a touch up paint job.    The back porch/breezeway is done as well.  Although, we do want to paint the steps there but that won't be done until we move out as they will stay nicer it we aren't using them all the time to go out to the animals.

I am starting to finalize moving plans for the animals.  I need a temporary pen for the chickens and realized I can build that where I want to expand the vegetable garden next spring. The chickens will do a nice job digging up all the grass and tilling the soil a little.  And the manure they will leave won't hurt either.  I am considering leaving my oldest hens at the old house to till up the current vegetable garden once the harvest is over.  They already sleep in a different, and smaller, hen house from the other hens and aren't laying many eggs any more.  This can be their last job before the stew pot.

Well, off to the bank to get the "paper trail."

20 days and counting

Whirlwind here of packing, purging, yard sales, donating, etc.  We were fortunate to spend 4 hours last Saturday evening with the current owners of our new house.  They wanted to get together to talk about gardens and house information, give us the book with all the info on the maintenance and gardens, and ask us about a few things they thought we might like them to leave behind.  Yes, of course I want the frame for the cage that covers the blueberries and keeps the birds away!  They are the nicest people and have taken such great care of the property for the last 27 years.  I only hope we can do the same.

Our youngest was happy she finally got to see inside the house and was able to walk the grounds.  She loves the little bridge over the stream.  I was hoping there was an area where I would be able to plant milkweed for a butterfly habitat; but I don't need to.  The upper end of the stream has a nice stand of milkweed and other plants for butterflies!  The soil in the current veggie garden is beautiful black loam.  But I need to remove/move some raspberry bushes.  I already have a barter arrangement to get some elderberries for some fall gold raspberries.

We met the neighbors across the street also.  The wife was born in our new house before it was moved to its current location in 1939.  She confirmed that the front room with the corner cupboard was the original cabin that was moved from down the road.  She was 8 years old when it was moved so I am hoping she knows where it stood before the move.  The neighbors built their house across the street from her parents.  And when her parents died the house was sold to the current owners.  We will only be the third owners since 1939.

The paperwork is progressing as well.  Insurances have been confirmed, appointments made, and forms getting faxed and emailed.  So much paperwork to buy a house.  Things sure have changed in 29 years!

36 days and counting

We've been waiting and waiting for word on the appraisal.  With home prices falling the way they have been we were worried that the appraisal would come in lower than the sale price.  But, thankfully, the appraisal came in $1000 higher than the sales price.

I think the bank has every piece of information on us, the new house, our old house, our jobs, our bank accounts, our homeowner's insurance, etc.  I'm not sure there is anything left they don't know, well maybe the size of my underwear.

And the packing continues.  The yard sale pile keeps growing.  And the old house is starting to look emptier.  I pulled my peas in the garden and I think I will just plant a cover crop.  It's starting to feel like this may really happen!

Dishwasher or no dishwasher

Our new house has no dishwasher.  (And it has a cool old sink with a double drain board.)  I was thinking about the pros and cons of having a dishwasher when my husband asked me what I thought about putting in a dishwasher.  I paused then said I was considering not having one.  And to my surprise he said he was thinking the same thing.  Now, years ago when our 4 kids were young we never would have had this conversation.  But now our dishwasher takes so long to fill up, because I refuse to run a dishwasher that is not full, that we run out of forks or plates.  I have had to purchase extra bowls and spoons to get us through until the dishwasher can be run.

So why would I want a dishwasher?  Well, it's great for sterilizing canning jars, but really how many times a years would I need that? 10?  15?  When I have a large number of people for dinner a dishwasher is nice to have.   Again, how many times would I need that?  10?  Several studies are quoted as finding lower water usage with the dishwasher vs hand washing.  But, no one ever gives a link to the studies.  Are they the same "studies" constantly be quoted and requoted around the internet with no real documentation?  The "studies" are quoted as saying the average dishwasher uses 8-10 gallons of water to run while the average hand washer uses 20-27 gallons.  I guess that depends on how one hand washes dishes.  I use a separate basin or the largest pot for my hot soapy water then rinse and do not leave the water running.  And I have items I can't put in the dishwasher like my copper pots/pans/nonstick fry pans etc.  Also my dishwasher doesn't work that well and I have to rinse the dishes for them to have any chance of coming out clean.  We also have very hard water which is hard on the dishwasher itself, clogging the holes and requiring frequent maintenance.  So if I add up the water usage from the dishwasher, the prerinsing, and the other things I need to wash by hand regardless, am I really saving water?  Especially since there is no way I use anywhere near 20 gallons to wash my dishes.

So why would I not want a dishwasher.  Apart from the water issues there is the space issue.  My new house's kitchen is small.  I could use the space that a dishwasher would take up much more efficiently.  Then there is the cost.  Do I really want to spend $500 on a dishwasher when I need so many other things in the new house?  And when we are talking about the environment and cost no one factors in the energy and resources to make the dishwasher.  You may save a little in energy usage by having a dishwasher, depending on how you wash your dishes, but how long would it take to counter the energy needed to manufacture the dishwasher?  And then the dishwasher has to get shipped to a store, more energy used, and the old dishwasher, if you were replacing one, has an energy requirement to dispose of it.

I also would need fewer cups, plates, bowls, forks, spoons, etc if we washed dishes more often.  No more pulling dirty forks out of the dishwasher and washing them so we could eat dinner.  And having fewer plates, etc would give me more space in my already limited cupboards.

So I think we will give having no dishwasher a try.  We can always decide we need one when we start renovating the kitchen, but for now I'm willing to go without. 

58 days. but who's counting?

Last Friday, June 15th, was exactly 60 days before settlement, the first day we could apply for a mortgage.  So all the paperwork is in; now we wait for the particulars- title insurance, appraisal, will we need flood insurance with the new flood maps, etc.
I am amazed at the rates today.  When we bought our current home in 1983 we were thrilled to get owner financing at 10%.  Bank rates were above 15%.  One reason we are buying now is because of the low interest rates.  In years past it seemed as if interest rates went up when home prices went down and vice versa.  You could get a fabulous price on a house but rates on mortgages were up and when the rates came down the price of homes went up.  Then the influx from New Jersey to eastern Pennsylvania began, in tandem with the housing bubble, and prices around here began to sky rocket.  Luckily we owned a home so we were able to ride up and down with the change in property values.  While our home may have been worth more a few years ago we would have had to pay more for our new place.
The people who really have it bad are the ones who bought at the height of the market and now owe more than their home is worth.  There are probably too many people in this country in that boat.  We are lucky to have a tiny balance remaining on a home equity loan and no mortgage.
So packing continues (who knew we had sooooo many books!)  My living room is filled with boxes, empty and full, waiting for the next step.  We will have a yard sale, donate a bunch, and plan to sell a lot (hopefully) of reenacting stuff and history books at the next event we attend.

How do I make metal kitchen cabinets from the 50's look like antiques?

This is the kitchen I need to work with while we do more important things to the new house; like moving my husband's shop into the garage and insulating it, putting in a second bathroom, building a new chimney, turning the family room into a master bedroom suite, etc.  So renovating a kitchen that is already functional is low on the priority list.  Searching on-line brings up many examples of repainting, but somehow I can not see pink cabinets in my kitchen.  All the sites are going for a retro 1950s look that just doesn't do anything for me.  Years ago I saw a kitchen with Rufus Porter type paintings on some of the cabinet doors.  While we did not use the Rufus Porter mural idea we did incorporate many other elements into our existing kitchen; particularly the ones that give the look of existing cabinets brought together for a new kitchen.
So for this kitchen I would like to have my son paint some small mural elements onto canvas that can then be attached to the upper cabinet doors to give the look of a mural.  I am considering painting the bottom cabinets a dark green or red colonial color.
Here are some ideas I am kicking around:

Rufus Porter murals

Moving the animals and the hoop house

The one part of moving that I am not looking forward to is moving all the animals.  Thankfully all of our animal housing was made with an eye towards portability.  Our first chicken coop was built on top of a 4x4 plastic palate.  Two people can easily move it.  The hardest part will be getting it out around the lilac bush and small oak tree. 
When we bought our newer chicken coop we had recently acquired an old trailer missing its decking.  The coop fit perfectly on top.  All we need to do is winch the trailer onto our road legal trailer and drive away.  We might even move the coop with all the birds inside.

The goats themselves won't be as easy to move as the chickens, but their housing won't be much trouble.  Their first home was a calf hutch.  As they grew my husband made them a "run in" which gives the goats a covered area outside their hutch.  With all the rocks around they are quite content.  Too bad we can't move any of the rocks; I know the goats will really miss them.  Temporary fencing won't be too difficult either.  Right know our entire goat pen and most of the chicken run is made from 16 ft cattle panels cut into 8 ft sections.  Two trailer loads should move the goat housing and all the cattle panels.

We have also used cattle panels to make a temporary hay storage area and a greenhouse.  Surprisingly, our tarp covering the "hay hut" has lasted 3 years.  All we'll need to do when we move the hay hut is throw away the tarp, disconnect the boards along the bottom holding the shape and load it up on the trailer.

The greenhouse or "hoop house" was a fun project and one I am definitely not leaving behind.  Right now it is approx 8x9, but I would like to add one more cattle panel and make it 8x14.  Hopefully we will be able to reuse the plastic.  When we first built the hoop house I used regular plastic because I had a bunch left over from another project.  That lasted one year and then disintegrated in the sunlight.  Greenhouse plastic was really not any more expensive than regular plastic and has held up beautifully.  I could probably get another couple years out of it but we'll see how the plastic survives being taken off then put back on.  If I end up making the hoop house larger then I'll probably get another whole sheet again and use the older plastic for some smaller hoops for seasonal protection in the garden.

Cattle panels are useful for so many things.  I am glad we have purchased so many over the years.  Cattle panels are nearly indestructible by the goats, although a few are a little bowed from the goats rubbing along them.  Chickens and baby goats can easily get through the panels but we have put chicken wire along the bottoms of the panels in the chicken run and coated 2inch by 4inch 2ft tall wire on the bottom of the panels in the goat pen.  Moving the animals is something that will have to be done fairly quickly once we get started, and is the main thing that must happen before we can start staying at the new house.

Our new wood cook stove

We are now the proud owners of a Waterford Stanley wood cook stove similar to the picture above.  Thank you Ted for all of your help as we could not have gotten it onto our trailer without you.  It took 2 1/2 hours to get the stove apart and onto the trailer.  800 pounds of cast iron as a complete unit.  We may have gotten it down to 400 pounds after taking every part we could off the stove.  Thank goodness for levers, dollies, 2x4s and brute strength.  All together the trip took 10 hours; a long day of driving and hard work for the guys.

The original owner of the stove bought it because her grandmother had one that was close to 100 years old.  She had a lot of memories of visiting her grandmother in Ireland and many memories involved the cook stove.  She is selling her current house and can't take the stove with her; and the new owners don't want the stove.  She seemed happy to know that her stove was going to a good home and will be cherished for many years to come.

Now comes the hard work.  First, we must put the stove back together, minus the legs, before we forget how we took it apart.  Thankfully my husband found the manual online so we now have a very good diagram of how the whole thing goes together.  We also need to clean out the insides as I don't think the stove has been cleaned in 3 years.  All that creosote and ash around the cast iron firebox while it's in storage would invite moisture and lead to rust.

Wood cook stoves

I have wanted a wood cook stove since I started hearth cooking.  The technology is a little more advanced than making a "burner" of coals on the hearth floor, but they are much more practical and fuel efficient (and much easier on your back).  Soon after we moved into our schoolhouse we bought an old coal range from the 1940s or 50s.  It baked beautifully; something about that type of heat that made the best breads.  And sitting in front of the oven door was great for drying hair.  Unfortunately, the stove's firebox was too small to be our main heat source and frankly the stove was really ugly.

A true wood cook stove just wouldn't work in our current home.  The layout is all wrong and we needed the larger firebox and heat output of our Vermont Castings' Vigilant.  But when we started to design the interior changes in the new house it became apparent that a wood cook stove would fit in to the kitchen area.  We knew we needed a newer stove to get the UL listing so we wouldn't lose our homeowner's insurance.  There are two steel stoves, Pioneer and Baker's Choice, that I really didn't like the looks of and I wanted something sturdier.  The Elmira has a more solid top and is a bit ornate for my tastes as is the Heartland. Finally I saw someone mention a Waterford Stanley on a blog and I really liked the looks of this stove. It's also solid cast iron and considered the "work horse" of cook stoves.

But, ouch, the price!  I have been regularly checking out Craig's List for stoves and finally a Waterford Stanley came up.  I think we are going to look at it this weekend.  Hopefully it as nice as it looks like on line and I will have a wood cook stove finally.