My car was a Japanese import from the early 1990s, and it got 55 mpg, so i wasn't too terribly worried. By the time i started getting close to home, my attention was back to the vulnerability of our infrastructure. Just a handful of terrorists had crippled the fuel distribution system. What if something similar happen to the electric grid. How would i heat my home and cook my food. Solar power would be too weak and expensive to heat my house and cook my food. Natural gas was not available in my neighborhood. Wood, however is abundant both on my property and from nearby friend's properties. It's renewable and effective, and those arguments were good enough for me. By the time i pulled into my driveway, i had decided to get a wood-burning stove.
I had seen one at my local farm, seed, and mercantile store. They had set them out recently because fall was getting near, so i guess the wood-burning stove idea had already been in the back of my mind. I had wanted to build a brick fireplace, but read that they don't heat a room anywhere near as well as a wood-burning stove. So i set out to plan my installation: The pipe would go through a collar, set in a square piece of tin, which would be fitted in a window. I saw an old shack outside of Natchez, Ms., that had this type of set up. The pad for the stove was to be made of 2x6x14 cinder-blocks, which are porous and act as a heat shield. Beneath that was to be a thermal blanket consisting of two sheets of aluminum, separated by a thin layer of fine sand. Under that was to be placed a layer of styrofoam board insulation. The bottom of this layer cake was hidden by decorative wood trim.
I worked on the project for a couple of weeks and paychecks. Finally, the pad was mortared in with gray mortar that matched the blocks. The wood trim, which was stained to match the floor, made the finished edge look like a neat little hearth. The extra insulation was over-kill, but i didn't want to take any chances on starting a fire. The stove was a black, cast-iron, boxwood stove with four scalloped legs, so it looked just as old as the house. The pipe came up out of the back, made a 90* turn and went out the window, turned again and went up as high as the ridge of the roof, where it ended in a rain bonnet.
Well there i was, with my new, old looking wood-burning stove. It was time to fire it up!. I put in some straw and kindling and struck a match.
Within seconds i had a good flame. I opened the damper all the way, and the flames started to huff and dance. I put a pot of water on the back, and started loading in wood. And loading wood. And loading more wood. Then i opened the damper all the way. The water was not even steaming! 'Why can't i even boil water with this thing?' Frustrated, i added more wood until the stove was huffing and puffing like a steam locomotive, and the sides were glowing red, and even the galvanized pipe was starting to smoke. Still no boiling water! Just a strange, chemical oder and a thin, ominous white smoke coming from the surface of the pipe.
OK, back to our regularly scheduled program. 
Slavedriver! I guess i'll have to write all day and all night until i get to 2011. Okay! Here it goes!
