Craig's Fire

How to get clean in the middle of WV with no running water.

Yes, there were times in my past life when I could be considered a hippie – and a wood burning hippie at that, since that was the only possible source of heat out in the boonies of Lewis County, WV.

We found plenty of wood, sawed it with two-man saws and chainsaws…never learned much about seasoning, as our needs were immediate, so into the stoves it went.

Being hippies meant that about 40 people were living on the mountain along with us – housing consisting of one main house (see pic) as well as corn cribs, barns, old schoolbuses and some bread vans…one of which my wife and I called home. Those $20 tin stoves from the hardware store were just right for making the inside of a metal box truck quite cozy!

But as we worked hard, we also started smelling a bit ripe – no showers, no hot water, etc. – this can put a cramp on ones love life, let alone your other socialization opportunities. A bucket with a sponge (sponge bath) was the only game in town, and it was not sufficient for the level of hard physical work we were doing.

Finally, we decided to take the bull by the horns and build a Sauna which would hold 20 or 30 of us at one time. If you look close at the picture of the house, you will see a tool shed with wood siding to the right of the it. It was in the basement of this shed – the old root cellar – where the Sauna started to take shape.

The anticipation was high – soon we would all be able to bake the impurities out of our systems, and also hang out naked with our fellow “farmies”…no hanky panky planned, just a nice innocent sweat lodge…..

We cleaned the place out and paneled it with wood…..found an old wood stove and installed it against an exterior wall. At the time (early 70’s), we didn’t know about such things as insulated chimney or stove clearances, so we placed the stove about a foot away from the wall and ran the stovepipe up a few feet and our through the wall using single wall pipe. We were a little concerned at how close the stovepipe was to the wood beams above, but one fella said we could simply nail some asbestos to the bottom of the wood to solve that problem.

Finally, the Sauna is finished and we are about to get clean and happy for the first time in months. The stove was fired up and we all piled into the hot room – WOW – it was everything we thought it would be! The dirt poured out of our pores, and after roasting for about an hour, we ran outside and poured some water over ourselves. I had not felt so clean in ages.

That night Martha and I slept in the house next to the shed, and it was a great nights rest……until our dog started barking at about 3 in the morning. Turns out the toolshed was totally engulfed in flames! We quickly woke up everyone nearby and started a bucket brigade from the creek which was a couple hundred feet away. The local fire dept came and watched since there was no chance of their fire engine getting up our muddy road.

The Sauna and Tool Shed burned to the ground, and would have taken the house with it had we not continued to throw wet blankets over the gable end of the house which faced the shed. Not only was our Sauna gone, but also our chain saws, tools and virtually everything else we needed to hack a living out of the tough WV countryside.

An inspection of the aftermath determined that the stove pipe going through the wall was the culprit. Although we had left the Sauna at about 11PM, the fire had started within the wall and within a few hours had found enough air and additional fuel (wood) for it to grow.

Note: Human Pictures here are taken by David Frohman and or The Foundation and The Farm – house pic is public domain.