The Colorado Stove

When Layne and I were early married we rented a cute little cottage in Millbrae, CA.  It was very near the SFO airport, where Layne began his flying career.  That little cottage had an old fashioned stove in the kitchen that I fell in love with.  It was half wood-burning and half gas-burning and was in beautiful condition.  The landlord wanted to install a new unit, so he offered us the stove.  We had no use for it at that time, or in the  many years that followed.  But I loved it and felt that surely we would eventually find a place for it.  So we stored it in the folks' barn in Cedaredge, CO.  For some 40 years!

After getting settled in our Idaho home, I determined that, at last, that little stove could find a home with us.  Outside our kitchen there is a covered patio with a gas outlet and an opening above for an exhaust pipe.  Perfect for that old stove.  I mentioned it to Layne but he wasn't very enthusiastic about it.  But with no shortage of conversation about how perfect the site was and how wonderful it would be to have it, he finally agreed that we could get it.  So I arranged a trip to retrieve it, and announced my plan to Layne.  Much to my delight, he went along with it.  I broke down the trip into short 6 hour drives, with a loading day in the middle of the week.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.

We drove to Kaysville to visit Layne's brother on our first day.  Lynn and Layne are twins.  Now my idea of family togetherness amounts to frequent conversation and regular visits, but it is not so with Galbraith men.  Layne and Lynn rarely see each other and speak, maybe, twice a year.  There is no ill will between them; on the contrary, they see themselves as "close."  I long to be close-er so I enclosed a visit with them on our journey.  What fun they are!  I would love to see them on a more regular basis.  As we discussed, our "biological clocks are ticking" and so, if we do want to spend more time together, we'd better get to it.  So we calendared another visit.  Maybe the Galbraiths will redefine close yet.


                                  Lynn and Layne, twins, with Lynn being 20 minutes older.

Lynn and wife Camille, in front of their home, built on the site of the older home they grew up in.

  Tuesday we headed to Colorado via Bob and Maryanne's for the keys needed to open the storage areas at the Ranch.  It was a hot drive in that truck.  We stayed with friends, Cliff and Elaine Conlon, in Grand Junction.  They were great hosts and provided us with a movie night that exposed us to the movie, The Impossible, about the tsunami off the Indian Ocean that killed between 230,000 and 280,000 people in 2004.  It was based on the true story of the survival of one family.  Fascinating.  So much so that neither of us could sleep that night.


Here we are with Cliff and Elaine (the redhead) and their friend Priscilla, a health food junkie.  We ate at an organic food restaurant which considered their food worth a great deal more money than ordinary places.

We drove into Cedaredge on Wednesday.  The town is spruced up with new sidewalks and street lights, but it appears to be dying.  Some of the businesses are closed and others are apparently struggling.  Going to Cedaredge with Mother gone is a bittersweet thing.  Our family has been in this little town for generations but now all are gone.  The Ranch looks much the same on the outside and Mom's collection of stuff still fills the barn and outbuildings.  The renters have filled the rest, especially the house, with enough stuff to flood out the doors.

As we began our search in the barn for my little stove, Steve and Sharon Palmer, Cedaredge friends for many years, arrived to help.  Del Bates, the man who rents the pasture, also arrived and helped.  That barn was filled even fuller than I remembered.  Guess where we found the stove?  In the corner furtherest from the door, of course.  There it was, dissembled, dirty and full of vermin, right next to the back wall of the barn.  Between it and the exit doorway stood three other stoves and piles of boxes and other assorted stuff all piled high.

Layne is quite a creative thinker.  He decided that the only reasonable way to get that stove out was to go through the back wall of the barn.  So he pried the boards next to the stove loose, removed them, and viola:  the stove stood within easy reach.  We drove the truck up to the stove and shoved it in.  Easy!  Del helped.  Layne and Del then replaced the boards and it was as if nothing has happened.  We packed up the stove and the box of parts, including the vintage instructions, and headed for the room behind the garage where I had stored some boxes of stuff of Mom's for me.  Then I remembered.  After making a special stop to get the key to that storage room, I left it in Grand Junction, an hours drive away.

But Layne is a creative thinker.  He and Steve cut through the latch to the door and we got in!  I found my boxes and loaded them in the truck.  We bought a new latch and lock and installed it as before.  So slick!

We went to lunch with Steve and Sharon after that and had a good visit.  Then back to Grand Junction and Conlon's for our last night there.  What fun to unite a trip for a stove with so much bonding.

                           Sharon and Steve Palmer, at lunch with us at the "Bakery."

Thursday morning we drove back to Salt Lake and an overnight with Bob and Maryanne.  Then we headed for home  on Friday morning.  Let me just say that riding in that truck was not the most comfortable ride I've had.  It is a faithful little pick-up but very basic and very old (1991).  No air conditioning--cooling by window only.  No charger for the phone.  Plastic seats that promote sweating.
Tight quarters.  But it got us home.  As soon are we drove into our driveway, Jim, our neighbor pulled up behind us.  What a guy.  He helped us unload and, especially, helped get that stove on the patio.  Now all we have to do is clean it, reassemble it and make it work.  Boy do I hope it does.

                  Bob and Maryanne in their kitchen Friday morning, cheerily sending us off.

Here is most of the stove on our patio.  Now don't judge her too harshly.  Think of this as a "before" picture.  When I've cleaned her and added her other parts, including legs she'll be a true jewel.  Well you can judge for yourselves; I'll show you another picture of her when her true beauty has emerged.