By: Blonde Two
You will have gathered by now, that I am a bit of a pyromaniac. I can’t deny it any longer, I, Blonde Two, love burning things.
Which is why I was so excited when we and our DofE youngsters arrived at the Exmoor Centre last week, to meet my latest burning device; here it is.
This fabulous stove was almost as multi-purpose as a Blonde. It kept the bunkhouse warm as toast (although we didn’t actually cook toast), it melted our cheese (we asked it to), baked our potatoes, dried our socks (we didn’t ask it to melt them), warmed our wet boots, got rid of most of our rubbish and stayed lit all night.
I was ‘fire-monitor’ for the week (I didn’t really give anyone else a chance to be!) The best part of this job was deciding which rubbish would burn and which wouldn’t. This was the most amazing fun; did you know, for example, that left-over pasta makes a most warming fuel, or that most of a Pringles pot will burn leaving only the foil base?
A big thank you to Will who drove all our kit down the hill and over the stream. He was the perfect gentleman; as soon as we arrived, not only had he lit the stove for us, but he had also put the kettle on!
Looks very like “The Otto” that kept our sitting room warm in winter in the 1950s! We fed it anthracite and furnacite.
Its friend, “The Beast” kept the kitchen warm and heated the water. Its coke fuel in the coke hod was a permanent attraction in later years for Sherry-the-dog, who was always hungry. Plaster that fell from the ceiling was an extra source of food too – but don’t think she was starved; I think she was nearly the fattest dog I ever saw when she first arrived at our house.
It was apparently a very good buy and keeps the bunkhouse warm even in the depths of winter (which must be lovely!)