Fighting off the morning chills is a simple enough process. For most of us, it involves pressing some buttons on a thermostat and enjoying the comforting heat as it bubbles out of some unseen vent connected to a furnace in our basement. It’s something we take for granted every day.But for 365 days while living on a rustic farm without modern conveniences, it wasn’t that simple for Popular Mechanics contributing editor Logan Ward. Producing heat to warm his family meant trying to master the basics of self-sufficiency that people living in the year 1900 counted among their common skills. Heating began with laboring over the chopping block, then coaxing heat from the stove while keeping smoke from filling the kitchen. In his new book, See You in a Hundred Years, Ward writes: “I open and close vents on the side and front to improve the draft. I jam the flue lever on top back and forth, but still the old stove wheezes and puffs smoke. Then I remember the damper halfway up the stovepipe. I open it, and the smoke stops. The wood in the firebox crackles and pops. ‘I think it’s going to work!’ I say.“In the book, Ward recounts the daily trials he and wife, Heather, faced as they bumbled through their yearlong adventure, always following one rule: If it didn’t exist in 1900, it doesn’t exist for us. Not only did the couple recapture a skill set rarely employed today, they learned a new appreciation for the conveniences of modern technology. —Emily MasamitsuSee You in a Hundred Years is available in bookstores and online here. You can catch Logan reading from the book on the following dates:June 12, 6:30 pm Fountain Bookstore, Inc. 1312 East Cary Street Richmond, Va.June 19, 7:30 pm Just Books 28 Arcadia Road Old Greenwich, Conn.June 21, 7:30 pm Community Bookstore 143 Seventh Avenue Brooklyn, N.Y.July 15, 2:00 pm Books-a-Million 301 Cox Creek Parkway Florence, Ala.July 17, 6:00 pm The Alabama Booksmith 2626 19th Place, South Birmingham, Ala.July 19, 5:00 pm Happy Bookseller 4525 Forest Drive Columbia, S.C.July 23, 7:00 pm Staunton Public Library 1 Churchville Avenue Staunton, Va.
