I am a rather humble person because my parents come from very humble means; My dad grew up on a farm, in a house so aged it predates the constitution! Growing up as a kid, my dad would tell me lots of funny stories about his childhood. When we lost power growing up in the south, my dad would tell me stories about losing power in a farm house when he was a kid. I grew up in a beach house in ‘75, and so I was forever fascinated by this antiquated farm house. When I would ask him how aged the farmhouse was, he would tell me that it was technically older than this country. The farmhouse my father and his two siblings grew up in was built before the Constitution was even written. Their house was so aged that it had a central fireplace–the fireplace is at the center of the home and has hearths on both stories in the rooms. So with a single chimney, the house heats multiple floors as well as rooms. Their fireplace was wonderful when the power went out during a Winter storm, because they could live off just the fireplace… Even without the regular furnace, the house heated just wonderful with only the fireplace because it was designed to. The fireplace was also large enough to cook in, and it had a sort of cave in part of the chimney near the kitchen which acted as an oven. This month I had to rely on a camp stove when I lose power, even though I always dream of an old house like the one my dad lived in, where I can cook as well as stay warm and comfortable even during a Winter storm.