Saved by a Franklin Stove
Aug 2nd, 2010 | By Editor | Category: Uncategorized | Print This Article
When my dad retired from the post office in the early 70s, he bought a Franklin wood stove from Sears and installed it in the living room. “Northwest Ohio winters can be pretty cold,” dad would say. It seemed kind of strange to me at the time, but then he was always very interested in self-sufficiency. In fact, all the time I was growing up, mom and dad always had a one acre garden!! (I tell folks I was born a slave to a monster! Okay, okay, it was good for me.) Anyway, dad was tickled he was saving on the fuel oil prices, and it sure kept the house nice and warm. When I would come home in the summers I’d help stock him up on fuel from our woods out back. Those were great times working with dad. They are fond memories I will always cherish.
At Christmas time, 1977, I was living in Vermont, and came home for a visit during the holidays. On Christmas Day he had what we thought was a heart attack. It turned out to be an aneurysm of his aorta. He spent 53 days in the hospital. I was self-employed so I could stay home and look after mom and my special-needs sister while dad was slowly recovering.
Then it happened. Before dawn on Thursday, January 26th, the blizzard of ’78 hit with a vengeance with 60 mph winds and temperatures in the single numbers. We woke up to absolutely lethal weather. Very quickly we lost power. No electricity meant no well water, so we had to melt snow for drinking water and other needs. No power meant no furnace, but that Franklin stove worked perfectly, and our breezeway was stacked to the rafters with split red oak. That previous summer I remember thinking, ”What smelly wood this is!” Now I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
For four days the wind howled and drove the snow into banks so high and hard-packed, you could walk on top of them. Then it ended and the digging out began.
I am happy to say that dad recovered and lived to share his wisdom with us for 2 1/2 more years. “You’ve always got to have a back-up plan,” he used to say. Thanks to his foresight, hard work and planning, we survived that killer storm while he was still stuck in the hospital. A self-reliant heating plan saved our lives back then. How much more critical is it today when we are faced with staggering uncertainties? As dad would say, “What’s your back-up plan?”
John G.
Ohio
Other articles in this issue:
- How to get in Shape and Stay in Shape – It’s Easier than you Think
- How to Create a Food Storage Supply for You and your Spouse … For as Little as $5 per Week
- Trash Talk: Survival Sanitation
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Approximately 20 years ago I was visiting a daughter in NY when a blizzard knocked out the power for an extended period. A great ice storm that took out the grid almost completely. I was flabbergasted at the people who lived in the north country and did not have kerosene lanterns and lamps, some form of wood burning heat and plans to survive under conditions that could be expected to occur on a regular basis to one degree or another. What became of our pioneer self reliance?
I have learned since living in a northern area that does get snow, to always have a wood burning stove. In our latest home I insisted we install one, even a little one would be beneficial to any home. We are in the suburbs and my small stove will heat the whole house, I made sure it was one with a flat top should cooking be an issue. There is always someone getting rid of a tree, or one can always go to a natural area for pieces of wood free for the picking. I am amazed at people in this snow area that are still not prepared even thought they all speak of the ice storm that knocked all power off in most of the city. What will it take? One city slicker from the south experiencing her first ice storm and no power, an inefficient fireplace was all that it took for me.
I moved to West central Arkansas in about 1996 and in 1999 I had to move to NW Arkansas for work. After about a year, I returned to West Central Arkansas and checked with the propane/Butane distributor and after finding out the outragous prices per gallon that they wanted, I went to the store and bought a wood burning stove.
I am glad that I did because in the winter of 2000 we had a power outtage that left me without power for 8 days.
I used the wood stove for heat and also cooked with it. Had it not been for the use of the stove, ( I have acreage with plenty of trees for firewood) I would have had to go into a shelter in town.
John, your dad was a very wise man. I live in upstate NY and remember the blizzard of ’78. Our daughter
was only eight months old and the three of us were house bound for three days. No problem, with a
wood stove in the finished basement and a good supply of wood we were safe and warm. We live in a
different house now in the same area but with a bigger wood stove in the basement, gas logs in the
fireplace, stand-by propane powered electric generator, kerosene portable space heaters, and at least
five cords of wood on hand always. We could make it through the entire winter with out power if need be.
Always, always, always be prepared. “Whats your back-up plan is exactly right”
My first Wood Burning stove was a Franklin Stove bought from Montgomery Ward when they still had a catalog sales department in the late 70′s..It was good for here in East Texas but needed constant loading during the night because of the smaller size I bought..Now I use an Ashley Air tight stove.It’s by far the Best as far as efficient operation..Always crack a window for oxygen for you and your stove..Always have a fire alarm and a Carbon Monoxide detector and a fire extingusher in each room..Clean your flu at least 2 or 3 times during the winter for moderate use..If you burn alot of wood because of colder climates i suggest you clean it once a month..They have wire brushes that you can add a pvc pipe to scrub off the soot from inside your exhaust stack..They have 6 and 8 diameter inch wire brushes that do a good job..
wood stoves are great to have for heatting your home we have a small one that will heat our whole house we use it mostly to help us cut back on useing the oil fired boiler we have gone from useing 4 drums of heating oil to useing under 2 drums a year and our drum holds 275gals we could drop to under a drum a year if someone was home to keep the fire going all the time but i try to keep a 2 year supply of wood here all the time