Stoker Coal and Firewood: The Black Diamonds of Winter

By Dale Jensen
Published on January 1, 2008
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Feeding the furnace with stoker coal.
Feeding the furnace with stoker coal.
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The octopus furnace required regular loads of stoker coal to maintain heat in the dead of winter.
The octopus furnace required regular loads of stoker coal to maintain heat in the dead of winter.
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Spring green. Summer fun. Autumn color. Perennially we praise the attributes of three seasons. Winter unfortunately rarely receives our accolades. Multiple snowfalls, ice and air temperatures (formerly just cold but now wind-chilled) are scourges to most.

Today, we prepare for winter on the farm by simply replacing a furnace filter and perhaps adding extra insulation. Once winter arrives, indoor comfort requires nothing more than manipulating a dial, switch or keypad on a wall-mounted thermostat. No thought is given to ensuring an adequate supply of combustibles to provide heat. We signal a mechanical system to warm the house and it is done. The farmhouse I grew up in did not have this modern convenience. We had a furnace that required daily replenishment of the fuel supply. Our fuels were firewood and stoker coal, the black diamonds of winter.

Winter on the farm

A dust-crowned rotary switch clicked the barn hallway into absolute blackness. Moments before, Trixie, our brown-and-white terrier, responded to the evening summons to “go to bed.” Unseen around a corner, she curled in her loose hay nest at the base of the hay chute before darkness filled the barn’s interior. Canine, swine, bovines and poultry were now fed, watered and sheltered against another frigid night. Both halves of the barn Dutch door swung closed, the metal door latch pronouncing chores, and the workday, finished. A short walk to the west end of the barn brought the farm house into view. Only the kitchen was lit. Supper, warm and nourishing, waited inside.

Between house and barn a solitary pole light illuminated the farmyard. The winter blanket covering the yard sparkled like a bed of sugar crystals. This soft appearance belied the actual texture. Frozen snow crystals audibly collapsed beneath every crunching footstep of four-buckle overshoes. A brief pause halfway across the yard turned off the artificial light, allowing a rising moon to bathe the entire farmstead in reflected light and shadows. Warmth was minutes away.

A final task remained before everyone was enclosed by walls of warmth for the night. A short distance from the house, two cold-soaked bushel baskets sat on the tailgate of a tarp-covered blue trailer. Every evening both baskets were filled with firewood, carried to the basement and placed beside a domed cylinder some 6 feet in diameter and height. This silver-painted giant was our furnace. Multiple ducts emanating from the dome gave this style of coal furnace its unique name; it was known as an octopus furnace.

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