Road trip to pick up Fisher wood stoves
Often folks ask me how we find our stoves. Some have even suggested that people must just drop them off here. Well, that has happened exactly zero times so far. Generally, they are nowhere close to where we live and some of the common issues we encounter are the stove is in a basement, a cabin in the woods, a cottage on an island that requires access by a boat, in barns, and very often in back yards with no way to back a truck up to them. We recently bought a Grandma Bear and a fireplace insert that were in the back yard and the only access out was a 2 ft path between the house and a classic car that could not be scratched. Sounded like a straightforward move over the phone. But we have learned that this is seldom the case. When we arrived there was a 20" tree stump dead center of the 2 ft opening. It turns out that day fortunately we had 2 helpers and we built a ramp on either side of the stump to manouver the extraction without damaging the house or the car. Yesterday was the 24th of December and everyone was scurrying due to last-minute Christmas shopping but that was the day we had free to go and pick up 2 stoves 4 hours from home. My wife and I got up early in case of holiday traffic, it was dark and the fog was so thick you could barely see. We had filled the gas tank the night before and we each had a large travel mug full of much-needed coffee to start our journey with. It was slow going even after daybreak the fog did not seem to want to give way. Once we hit the Hwy it seemed quite a bit clearer sailing. About 3 hours into our drive we were back in the country and the fog was heavy again. We happened on a gentleman in a truck in the ditch and stopped and offered to pull him out. His brakes had failed and he had a tow truck on the way so we figured he was going be in good hands and we carried on through the fog with a renewed sense of cautious awareness. After making our way through some new areas and deep into the country we arrived at our first stop. We felt blessed that the stove was outside and sitting on a small set of forks on a tractor. The man there fired up the tractor and loaded it onto the truck. I am getting older and far less mobile but I can still lift. I carry a folding step stool so I can get into the back of the truck easier. If I had done this when I was younger maybe I would not be so worn out. In any event, I shifted the grandpa bear to the front of the truck in preparation for our next stop. We drove the remaining hour to our next stop to pick up the mama bear. The gentleman had a car hoist in his garage and I was quite happy to balance the stove on one of the lifting arms with him while my wife backed the truck underneath it. We lowered it onto the tailgate and I again bucked it the rest of the way onboard. The gentleman thanked us for working so hard to save these great stoves and keeping the legacy alive. Encouragement like that is one of the things that keeps us going. Now it was time to turn around and we were on our way home. Once back on the highway, we saw dozens of people lining every overpass for the next 3 hours waving flags and holding banners protesting the Isreal/Gaza conflict. It is days like this when we get to spend the whole day together that we can have deeper chats and reflect on how fortunate we are and that we get to work together doing something we love. The only other eventful thing we encountered was a man riding a bicycle on the highway with a Starbucks bag in one hand. It was so shocking that we really could not believe that we had actually just passed a man on a bike on a 4-lane highway. You really never know what you will see on a road trip for wood stoves but it is always interesting. Now that we are back home we will take a day or two to relax while things are quiet and then we will get to work restoring these stoves for their new lives and prepare for the next wood stove road trip.
