From our ASHES TO someone else's ASHES

Yesterday Bev and Ivan did us a big favour. They took away the wood stove that had been in the kitchen of this place longer than anyone we know can remember. While we had it, it was the backup stove, in case electricity failed. It was also a source of heat when we didn't want to turn on the furnace.

It was probably what excited us the first time we saw the house. Owing our very own old wood stove. Just like the one my parents had when I was a child. Like my grandmother had. It was solid, dependable and beautiful. It had served many people for a very long time.

But it had seen better days. The firebox was starting to cave in, not leaving much room for birch chunks. We couldn't leave the kitchen when it was going because it threw flankers out the side. Heaven knows what it was throwing out the chimney.

It was a very large presence in the kitchen. When we want to seat more than two people at the kitchen table, we pull the table to the middle of the room. But with the stove being as big and as far from the wall as it was, it didn't leave much room for chairs and table or walking around.

With energy prices being what they are and our pocketbooks being strained in every direction, we needed to find a stove that would give a lot more heat more efficiently. It was time to part with the showpiece and get on with being practical.

When we left here last fall, I polished it up to look like it was when we got it. People here polish their iron stove tops to prevent rusting. Vaseline was the polish of choice. Had to borrow a crock from a neighbour. I mean, who has Vaseline anymore. [Aside: My mother asked me on the night before my wedding if I had any. That was the extent of the marital advice. Oh, yes, and a box of tissues, she said.] While I had the crock, I also wiped some over the shovel and axe and spade and whatever other tools we had in the shed. They look like new this year.

Anyway, the stove is now gone. In its place we had a large rusty rectangle on the canvas floor. I spent a while with some Comet and a scrubber and most of it came away. The chimney behind the stove will soon be gone too. We worked on it today to remove the wooden cladding that hid the bricks. Tomorrow we (I mean John) will go up on the roof to knock over the part that protrudes through the shingles. Then we'll take a sledge hammer to the parts that are in the house. We meant to buy some plastic to cordon off the area where the chimney is, to minimize the amount of soot that goes where it shouldn't. But we forgot to buy the plastic today. We were too excited to get fresh broccoli and sardines and other foodies.

My good friend Joanne gave us a spritzer bottle. The man who used to live in this house conveyed the message to us (via his daughter, our across-the-street neighbour) that we should spray the inside of the chimney with water to keep the soot from flying too much. I don't think we'll need much spritzing. The weather has been mauzy since we got here. I don't think the soot will be flying much.

But I could be wrong.