My upbringing wasn’t as old fashioned as it was rustic.
We lived on a ranch in an extremely rural area of the northern midwest.
At the age of four I was taught how to ride a horse and within a year was going on solo rides. Although my siblings and I all attended public school with a good mix of students from different backgrounds, our home lives consisted of constant manual labor and hard work. It was normal for me to spend most of my time outside of school and homework largely working on the family’s farm and doing whatever I could in my limited capacities. Once I was old enough I was helping my father with chopping wood for our two wood stoves inside the house. This wood was our source of heat throughout the frigid winter season. Chopping wood for heating purposes isn’t an easy process. My dad would do all of the work with the chainsaw while I would swing the ax to split the blocks into smaller pieces of wood that could fit inside the wood stoves. I always wondered why we had carbon monoxide detectors despite lacking any gas appliances in our rural home. My dad told me that an improperly venting wood heating system generates unsafe levels of carbon monoxide. This is particularly worrisome if there is a considerable build-up of soot in the chimney, making regular chimney cleanings even more important. Since carbon monoxide is both colorless and odorless, you won’t even know that it’s there poisoning you unless you’re using detectors. That small electronic device could be your line against accidental death.