The Stove Arrived!

And as you can see, getting it into the house wasn't that easy!

First of all we had a call from the truck driver who was supposed to deliver it. He was at the country store about six miles away. He'd stopped to ask for directions but the lady there managed to convince him that there was no way he would ever get that big truck down this road! We know that he could have done it but in a way it worked out for the best. Ken took off down to the store and he and the driver transfered the stove to the bed of our pick up.

It weighs over 600lbs and there was just the two of us so we had to come up with a way to get it off the truck and up into the house without killing ourselves!

Taking the railings off the deck and backing the truck up to it seemed like the best way. After that Ken attached a ratchet strap to the deck and the pallet that the stove was bolted to. Inch by inch he ratcheted it closer and closer to the end of the tailgate and then we were able to lift the front end up just enough to get it onto the porch. We did the same again to get the whole thing onto the porch. Then we really had to push and pull it to the door. It was painstakingly slow but once we got the end over the stoop we had a bunch of cut off broom handles to use as rollers. We rolled a little bit then brought the back roller to the front and rolled a bit more. Got it up the little step into the dining room and into place! I would never have thought we could do this without help. I had visions of it sitting in the driveway under plastic until we could find a few people to come and give us a hand.

So now it's sitting here all put together but not hooked up yet. Ken still has to get the right kind of stove pipe for it. We hope to have it fired up by the end of the month.