Warming my Rivets

I won’t get this quote quite right, but one of my favorite authors, Ivan Doig, wrote that a wood stove is the only kind of heat that warms the rivets of your Levi’s. Wendell Berry, my other favorite writer, said he’d rather know how to build a fire than operate a thermostat (I didn’t get that quote right, either, I’m sure). Despite my poor recall, I’ve always subscribed to both concepts. I’ve always preferred wood heat.

The first home that Sami and I bought in Penryn, California, had a wood stove - I don’t remember which brand. I do remember cutting firewood. We cut valley oak at our friend’s ranch in Clements. We cut (and even burned!) foothill gray pine (which I split by hand! I was much younger and stronger 30 years ago). I don’t think we ever used the heater in that house.

When we moved to Auburn in 2001, one of the drawbacks to the home we purchased was the propane “wood stove” the sellers had installed. We promptly bought a Pacific Energy wood stove, and started cutting firewood (we moved into the house in March - by the next fall, we had cut enough wood for the winter). I think the last time we used the natural gas furnace was in 2003 or 2004.

Relying on wood heat had its drawbacks (especially in a home as poorly insulated as our Auburn place). If we traveled for more than 2 or 3 days from December through February, the temperature inside our home was similar to the temperature outside! We’d come home from a trip and find the house frigid - we often slept in the living room in front of the wood stove that first night after returning home!

I grew up with wood heat - and with the process of getting enough firewood to make it through the winter. Sami did not, but she embraced it! We cut and stacked wood together throughout our marriage; Sami learned how to split kindling, start a fire, and keep it going. When we started raising sheep, Sami would put her bummer lambs under the wood stove, wrapped in a warm towel. She was convinced (as was I) that wood heat was the best way to revive a frigid lamb!

When Sami was diagnosed with glioblastoma in the winter of 2023, keeping the house warm became my sole responsibility. As did preparing for the winter of 2024. Several friends knew we heated with wood, and they brought oak and Douglas fir for us to burn. Others had oak that was already cut and split - we just had to haul it home. Mostly I did this alone, but Sami went with me several times while she was undergoing chemo- and radiation-therapy in the spring of 2023.

Last winter, after Sami passed, I continued to heat with wood. Thanks to the generosity of our friends, I had plenty. When I decided to move south to be closer to family - and to help care for my mom - I also decided to leave the firewood I had left in Auburn. Buy it (or cut it) where you burn it, as the experts say - I didn’t want to transport any possible pests to my new place in Calaveras County.

The place I purchased near Mountain Ranch, California, checked many boxes! It had conifers (ponderosa pines and incense cedars). It had a covered porch. It was much lighter than our home in Auburn. But it didn’t have a wood stove! It does now - I bought a Lopi Endeavor and had it installed by the great folks at Hibernation Stoves in Arnold.

But in addition to the lack of a wood stove, my new place also didn’t have firewood. I figured in this first year, I’d rely more on the propane furnace, even though I had the stove installed. I figured I wouldn’t have enough firewood to see me through the winter.

Was I ever wrong! My main concern was having enough wood to heat the house until I could process all of the down oak on my 6 acres - probably 3-4 cords. My family came to my rescue!

Last weekend, my sister and brother-in-law cut tamarack pine. This weekend, I picked up a load of oak at my sister’s. And we cut a load of cedar on Ebbetts Pass. I have enough softwood to get me through the year, and enough oak to get me through until I can cut firewood here. Tonight, I built my first fire in my new stove!

Wood heat, for me, means more than simply heating the rivets on my jeans, though. Wood heat means self-sufficiency. Wood heat means economy - I’d rather run a chainsaw and a wood splitter than pay a utility for electricity or propane.

But wood heat, after losing Sami, also means connection. As I lit the fire in my new stove this evening, I thought of Sami. Today, when we found the first bunch of cedar logs, a red tail hawk circled overhead. Sami, I think, was watching. And she approved.