October 10, 1996 - Some Warm Thoughts on WoodstovesOctober 10, 1996 • The Suffolk Times • 5A
Some Warm Thoughts on Woo'dstoves
When we started up the woodstove
the other day, I looked down on the
brick hearth it sat on and saw the date
"1977" scratched into the cement. That
was the time of the oil embargo, when
the price of fuel was skyrocketing and
the country was trying out new and in-
novative ideas on how to cope with the
shortage of oil. Our whole lifestyle in
this country was built and is
still built on the idea of
cheap oil. We have a few
acres of woods and so
thought a woodstove might
relieve our reliance on this
then- high - priced commodi-
ty. And so we ins,tailed a
wood cookstove. It was one
of the Danish stoves that
had stood the test of time and has served
us well throughout the years.
There's nothing like the heat from a
woodstove and I'm sure there are those of
you out there who will vouch for its spe-
cial comfort. Just as there are those out
there who will swear they'll never have
anything to do with them again. Perhaps as
the years go by I, too, will fall back com-
pletely on oil to keep us warm, but right
now we're content with burning wood.
Besides, there's an extra plus of exercise
one gets from cutting and splitting wood.
It's a long way from when we were
kids and had a big pot - bellied stove in
the middle of the living room at my dad's
place. Then it was a bucksaw if you were
alone or a two -man saw if you had help. I
still have both and they are rusting away
in the barn, for now the chainsaw makes
short work of my wood - cutting. The
splitting we do is "the old - fashioned
way" except when I get a pile of "no-
split-'ems." Those are the pieces where
limbs grew or there were knots or just
unsplittable devils that I've given up on.
Then we get a log - splitter and everything
gives under the power of hydraulics and
gasoline engines.
some very old wood taken from
a dilapidated building well over
100 years old. A farmer's barn
had blown down in one of the
many hurricanes that passed by
and rather than being sent to the
landfill it was dropped off here
for kindling. I promptly cut it up
with -an electric skill saw and
piled it in back.
Most of it was
"rough- sawed"
wood, a full one
inch thick, that
probably came
from the local
sawmill of the
time.
Its first use had
cut nails that dated it as really
old, then as time moved on the
wood was probably reused. In
those early days wood was a
valuable commodity and was
used over and over again by the
early prudent Yankees. Then
the manufactured nails came
into use and buildings were
held together with these new
and plentiful nails.
Again, a new use was found for those
same boards, but this time the old rusty
nails were forgotten and shiny new gal-
vanized nails were used. So you can see
why my firewood was complaining be-
cause it was being burned. It probably
thought it still had a lot of good life left in
it. Being a great believer in recycling, I
probably would have
reused the boards
myself except the pre-
vious owners never
removed all the old
nails and that was just
too much of a job to
do.
That pile of kindling —
wood has lasted for three years and there
is still a pile left for the future. I couldn't
burn it all, for some of the heavy timbers
have their Roman numerals cut into the
mortise and tenon joints. In those days
all the framework of the building was
numbered on the ground before being as-
sembled. I kept these mementos of an-
other time, for what I'm not sure. It's like
Focus
on
Nature
"Paul
Stwtenburgh
Warmth from Cookstove
As I started up the fire, I stood over the
stove as it started to pour out its radiance
in front of me. The wood snapped and
crackled inside as if in defiance of being
burned. And there might be some justifi-
cation in its resounding, for it came from
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
DUSTY —Many years gone now, our son's pony was once the pride of the neighbor-
hood. His barn was made of old pine boards that probably were made from local
trees and cut in a mill right here on the North Fork.
so many things we collect --they mean
something to us but to no one else and
I'll bet many of you have something
around the house or garage that fits into
that category.
Those pine boards I cut up for kindling,
I'm sure, could tell us some interesting
tales. We don't see any pine trees any -
more;. I'm not talking
about pine barren
CUt pines, but of native
`The pine boards
up for kindling, co
tell us some
interesting tales.
* 1M&9w * M1.1. M__i_
75 Years Ago
Oct. 7, 1921
How About That ?: Unusual thing happened the
other day. Babe Ruth didn't get a home run.
Greenport Town Topics: Joseph MacDonald
Gilligan, the young son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Gilligan,
was awarded first prize for the fattest baby under a year old,
at the Baby Show held in connection with the Mineola Fair
last week.
The Vote is In: The National Liberal Alliance
announced recently that New York City's vote in the refer-
endum on prohibition and blue laws had exceeded 165,000
when the ballots cast up to Sept. 10 had been counted.
The tabulation follows: Favoring a liberal construction of
the l8th amendment and the sale of light wines and beers,
161,742; against a liberal construction and against light
wines and beers, 3,594. Against blue laws, 89,969; favoring .
blue laws, 398.
50 Years Ago
Oct. 11, 1946
Burglar Hits Museum: That the vaultlike building
of the Suffolk County.Historical Society on West Main
Street, Riverhead, is not impenetrable to thieves was
demonstrated for the first time last Thursday night when
somebody armed with a brace and bit literally. bored his
uld white pines on either
the North or South
fork, with the excep-
tion of an area to the
east of Sag Harbor.
There you'll still find
indigenous white pines flourishing and, in
some areas, substantial stands of it. I'm
sure it was prized by the builder, for we
see it used in many old homes and barns.
Let me leave the story of pine trees for
a moment and tell you of a youthful
dream that eventually brings us back to
our pine boards. When we first moved
into our neck of the woods, one of the
way through two stout doors into the main exhibition room
and decamped with a pair of antique dueling pistols.
County Properties Surveyed: The Suffolk
County Board of Supervisors voted recently to initiate a
survey of county properties in Riverhead with a view of
planning for inevitable expansions to take care of the grow-
ing departments of the county government and the many
federal and state agencies that for one reason or another
have claims on the county's hospitality. Seth Hubbard,
chairman of the county Planning and Development
Commission, offered the commission's help and coopera-
tion in solving the "space- pressure" problem which has
beset the board for several years.
25 Years Ago
Oct. 7, 1971
Audubon Unit Forms: Step by procedural step,
what will become the North Fork Chapter of the National
Audubon Society is under organization.
At a meeting on Sept. 29 in the Mattituck High School
auditorium, members elected officers, adopted bylaws and
appointment committee chairmen. There is already an
enrollment of approximately 150 charter members.
Paul Stoutenburgh, head of the North Fork Committee of
Nature Conservancy, gave a talk, illustrated with slides, of
North Fork scenes.
things my son wanted was a pony. Well,
you know a pony isn't like a cat or dog
that comes into the house and lies
around. The pony needs some sort of
shelter to keep it out of the weather, and
seeing we had just finished building our
own home, I wasn't too excited about
getting into another building project right
away. But the continual pressure from
the children wore Mother and Father
down more and more, particularly seeing
there was a pony tied outside someone's
house up on the Main Road.
We held off until one rainy day when
we found the pony tied out in the rain.
Evidently the owner was not around to
take care of him. To alleviate everyone's
feelings I knocked on the door and found
no response. We then untied the pony
and put him in the barn out of the pour-,
ing rain. Later I went to see the owner
and bought Dusty.
He was no Lone Ranger's "Silver," but
he caught the eyes of my son and we
were then the new owners of a pony. The
next problem was a shelter and, as luck
would have it, another man nearby on the
Main Road owned an old building that
could be used for a shelter. The house
had been moved because of its historical
significance, leaving a small building
behind. He was a man who always want-
ed to own a pony and was never able to
have one and after hearing the story
about my son and his newly acquired
Dusty he said, "I'd be glad to give you
this building." With much work and
frustration, we moved the building "cross
lots" to its present location.
Now back to our pine story. The old
building had 12 -to 16 -inch boards on its
side make up of pine. In those early days
there was no great transportation and so
the lumber must have come from .local
mills. The wood is just as good as the
day it was cut and I can assure you as
long as I'm alive and my children are
alive, it won't be used for kindling wood.
Historical Society
Sets Harvest Dinner
MATTITUCK —A harvest dinner for
members of the Mattituck Historical
Society will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tues-
day, Oct. 22, at the Little Red School -
OQ9s fT.g�rovide
place setting