A different view....

I post a picture taken in November over on my other blog, Time Stand Still.....right Here.
When I posted the other photo, we all wondered what it is used for...see those poles leaning against the tree? We think they are poles for a tee-pee. Then look at that bench....both things combined made Roger and I wonder if it belongs to some kind of re-enactor/mountain man type. I don't know who owns it, but I sure wish I had one like it.

It is hard to see the chimney in this photo, but if you look at the other photo on my other blog, you will see it. There is just nothing quite like sitting my the fire with a loved one...be it husband, kid, parent, or friend. It is true about any fire, even if it is a bonfire outside...

Some of my favorite memories are of when Roger and I lived in Tennessee, we had a fireplace. We only used it for a little bit, but in that time we did have a few fires in it. Also my friend came and we got to sit by the fire and visit.

Later Roger bricked it in, and we got a woodburner...a Buckstove to be exact. It had double walls, with a fan in back that circulated the heat. At the time we got it, the double walls with a fan was a new idea....and a fine idea at that.

We have an old garage here...it has our lawnmower and some other junk in it. I keep coming back to the idea of cleaning it out, using a power washer on the inside, then painting the walls and getting a woodburner to go in it....I would probably sit out there and have a fire sometimes even in the summer even.

Then I could smell woodsmoke any time I wanted to....

Fireplaces & Woodstoves

These pictures were taken at the pioneer village at Spring Mill State Park. I don't know what it is about a fire, but I don't think I know a single person that doesn't like to sit by a fire of any kind. We don't have a fireplace in our home, but I sure wouldn't mind if we did. Everyone else always thinks about the dirt and dust, but I could easily put up with that. I know I am one of the few people my age that can remember their mother cooking on a wood cookstove....but I do.

We had linoleum on all the floors...and they were cold of the morning. Mom was the first one up, of course. And I would wake up next--I don't know if it was all the time or just some of it. But I distinctly remember hollering, "Mommy, come and get me." She would come and carry me from the bed to a chair sitting at the end of the cookstove. There I would sit and stick small splinters of wood in through the draft at the end...while she made biscuits and cooked breakfast.

The wood cookstove had a thermometer on the door but it was broken, however my mom could bake biscuits, bread and cakes and pies with no trouble. I recall seeing her open the oven door and sticking her hand in to get a feel for the temperature. And she never used a timer of any sort. (I cannot remember anything without a timer these days.)

Our new house was heated with a coal stove for the first few years...not sure how many. Probably at least 3 or 4. I can remember sticking potatoes in the coals to bake as a snack. I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade when a coal furnace was installed. I am not sure what happened to that stove, but the old wood cookstove sits in the basement of the homeplace. At least it did the last time I checked....that has been a while ago.

I do not know what it is that draws me to the old times...I cannot imagine doing all my mom had to do with as little as she had to do with. But at the same time, I think these days stuff almost owns us...I think there is medium that I have not achieved. I have more than I need but hold on to stuff because I feel like as soon as I get rid of it, I will need it.

But looking at the bottom picture of the fire place--the utensils around it are probably all a lot of women had to cook with. And they made do with it fine. I for one, admire the women that came before.