The farmhouse we bought had a stove. A real brick stove with a bench.
After buying a house, they initially wanted to break the stove and replace it with a simple iron one. But let's talk about everything in turn.
The stove consisted of an oven and a hearth. We got it in a dilapidated state. The people who lived in the house must have burned things, not sparing the stove.
In addition, the stove takes up a lot of space in the house, and by dismantling it, you can equip almost a separate room.
At first we couldn't light a fire in the stove because it was completely destroyed. But it was early spring, and in order to survive, we had to burn.
We started smoking. We used scraps of boards and timber that we used to build the house to light the fire.
But almost immediately there was a knock on the window. We even felt uneasy. Imagine: late evening, not a single light in the village, complete silence, and suddenly — a knock on the window.
It's a good thing the kids are already asleep. If my husband weren't home, I'd probably be completely scared.
I looked out the window. Standing by the porch was my neighbor, a ghostly figure, an elderly woman who had experienced much grief in her lifetime.
Maybe she needs some help?
Looking up at me and parting her tightly pressed lips, she said:
“Never stoke the stove with a Christmas tree. Never. Otherwise, there will be trouble.”
She turned and melted into the darkness.
We felt that she was right almost immediately. Once ignited, the resinous boards began to “shoot.”
The little red sparks flew in all directions, and quite far away.
They got on our nerves a lot. We already had buckets of water ready in case of fire.
And at night, probably under the impression, I dreamed of the former mistress of the house. She asked me not to dismantle the stove, because the old stove-maker had built it, and now there was no need to build one, and the stove would still bring us a lot of benefits.
And so it happened.
The man repaired the old stove, replaced the door, burnt-out grates and hob, and lined the chamber with fireclay.
The stove really came in handy for us. I baked pies and cooked food in it all winter.
