Courtesy of the assistance from a neighbor and two of his co-workers, our 24 year old Hearthstone II is at the shop in Osage Beach. Cost of muscle? A dozen Raisin Oatmeal cookies and eight glazed donuts --- auto mechanics eat really healthy <grin>

Soapstone and cast iron construction tends to be fairly heavy. Make that obscenely heavy. Creates some mellow, smooth heat that lingers significantly after the wood is consumed. Call it 350 to 400 pounds of mass. They still make a similar stove. Soapstone and cast iron. Beautiful stove and very clean burning. 2700 dollars. We paid 900 for ours back in 1984. Moral of the story: If you want a good inexpensive wood stove, buy it in the 1980's.

Our old stove still works and looks fine. Seemed to me that some sprucing up and refurbishing were in order. Propane going to over two dollars a gallon had nothing to do with that decision --- honest.

Downloaded Mozilla's new Firefox 3.0 tonight. Eat your heart out IE.