It was bright, sunny and unseasonably warm when I discovered that we needed to replace our wood stove.
The weather was already cooler the next day as we swapped it for the old one we had in reserve.
At this time of year, on a bright sunny day, we can heat the house using the greenhouse. But, when we held pieces of stove pipe up above our heads and tried in vain to fit them together like giant, dirty legos, the sun went away.
Today, as I stare at our defunct stove and we wait for the parts and pieces that we need, it’s cloudy and cold.
Old Murphy and his law have struck again. Our main heat source goes and just like that, snow in the forecast tonight and our first real freeze tomorrow night.
My apologies, I didn’t mean to ruin the nice weather!
Behind the Willows 
Like me summoning rain after washing my car, right?
Exactly!
Apologies accepted. I’ve made it rain for two solid weeks here by buying a bag of bulbs at the Amsterdam Airport that have to be in the ground by the end of the month.
I’ve had two houses heated by woodstoves… one was in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and the other in a medieval castle in northern England. Both were demanding taskmasters, but I loved the smell and beauty and gentle heat. (Okay, I don’t miss cutting wood—why was every load delivered about 3-inches too long for the stove? Why?—or hauling it or cleaning out the ashes or that fine sticky black dust that eventually settled over everything…) I’m not saying my husband hated the woodstoves…exactly…but he named the thermostat for the central heating in our Hobbit House. He calls her Gladys and I don’t dare contemplate his decision if he ever has to choose between us.
I hope your stove is fixed soon. Or at least that the weather warms up. (you can see a picture of my beloved castle stove at http://wp.me/p2SHpT-Cx)
Wow, the castle stove is beautiful and, knowing wood stoves, sort of horrifying! How did you end up living in a castle?
Trespassing, terrifying the natives, and plain good luck! (see http://barbtaub.com/2014/01/28/tuesday-updates-a-womans-castle-is-her-home/)
oh dear, that’s definitely a predicament. When we lived up north we lived in a mobile home and often in winter the water pipes froze leaving us without water for days. I think you can imagine the scenario (no washing, no showering, melt snow for cooking, no toilet, eek — so glad we no longer live up there) 🙂
Hoping the stove parts arrive SOON!
No water, is no fun I’d rather be chilly.
Which, unfortunately, I still am. We have a very large bone to pick from the place we ordered from, Friday delivery turned into Monday with a lot of excuses. We do have electric baseboard heaters. But as our friend said, “But that’s 50$ just to turn it on, and you don’t even get heat yet!!!”
I’m wearing a hat.
I told Grandpa about your heat problems and I think he was concerned for you…. Especially considering anything under 75 degrees sounds crazy to him. So, he sends some heat your way!
That’s why you were so toasty warm on Sat! He was heating up Wisconsin for me – nice of him! 🙂 Our parts *should* arrive today hopefully we’ll be up and running by tomorrow.