Heat & fire · Anytime
Building a Fire in the Woodstoves
The cabin has three woodstoves. They work alike, so this one walkthrough covers all of them. Everybody worries about the stoves, but they're easy if you follow V. Gilbert's written instructions next to them. The one thing to really watch is the air lever: left too far left, the stove overheats.
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You'll need
- Small wood from the driveway porch
- Newspaper
- A few pieces of fatwood
- The torch
- The stove mitt
Step by step
9 steps
Open the door and load some small wood
No flue to set on these stoves. Put in a couple of pieces of small wood; it doesn't need to be arranged like the fireplace.
Paper in between, fatwood on top
Tuck newspaper between the wood, then add a couple of pieces of fatwood.
Add a few more pieces of wood on top
Lay a few more small pieces across the top. The small wood lives on the driveway porch.
Push the air control knob all the way in
Under the front of the stove, push the air control knob in.
Slide the air lever all the way left
Slide the other air-flow lever all the way to the left to give the fire plenty of air while it starts.
Light it with the torch
Keep the torch on the paper until there's a good flame going.
After 10–15 minutes, pull the knob out
Once the flame is established, pull the air control knob out all the way.
Slide the lever right, then back left about an inch
This is the important part. Move the lever all the way right, then back left about an inch. All the way left overheats the stove; all the way right starves the fire and it dies.
Fine-tune until the flame is steady
Play with the lever until you have a nice, even flame, not a roaring boil. It will stay like that for a long time.
Adding wood later
- Once there's a bed of embers, you don't need to relight. Add wood and slide the lever all the way left; the fire almost always catches on its own.
- After about 10 minutes, set the lever back to just left of all-the-way-right. Don't forget this step.
- You can load from the front door, or from the top: push the damper handle back first so smoke doesn't pour out, and close the damper again after loading.
- Leaving the door open is optional, but the cabin heats best with it closed.
- Once the stove is really hot, it only needs wood every two or three hours and stays warm all night.
Be careful
- Never leave the air lever at the far left. That's how the stoves overheat.
- Wear the mitt. The handles get blazing hot.
