Yesterday, we cut up firewood into small enough pieces to fit into the wood burning Shipmate stove aboard Mahdee. We now have four bins of firewood. From our prior experiences heating Mahdee with the wood stove, that wood should last us about a week. We didn’t use the Shipmate at all last winter–for cooking or heat. Instead we used the Taylors kero stove. This week we simply decided we’d be cheery and Christmas-like with the sounds and smell of wood burning.

Of course, I’ve been using the Shipmate oven to store things in. For the last year, the Shipmate stove top has provided additional storage for dish drain and more pots and pans. I’ve got bits and pieces of things stored under and between the stove and the heat shield as well. It will take me a couple hours to simply find new homes in the galley for all that stuff!