Fireplace CLOSED.....

A "day-off".  If there is such a thing.  No school today for Good Friday and Rylee was home with mama. Since tomorrow I will be running errands in preparation for our breakfast at church this Easter Sunday, I thought I'd spend today doing some cleaning, starting with the fireplace.  We let the fire go out a couple weeks ago.  We've had a few cool mornings but really not too bad.  We do have a few electric baseboard heaters left in the house that we can use to knock a chill off.  But anyways....Today, our fireplace is officially CLOSED!  I knocked ashes down into the pit to await a good clean out this fall and I cleaned the doors and reset a few things on the mantles and set a few things out on the kitchen hearth.  I love the warmth of our wood burning fireplace but let me tell you....it is work! From the cutting of wood to the hauling it up to the packing it in to getting up at 3:00 in the morning to feed the fire, it is work!  I have been enjoying the full nights sleep I've been getting since letting the fire go out a couple weeks ago.  If you remember, I'd been sharing entries from my Aunt Evelyn's memory book and I was reading through it again the other day and found this one that I thought I'd share with you today, now that the weather is looking and feeling a little more spring-like!  

"It was so nice to come in on a cold day and back up to one of the old stoves.  At night a flat iron or brick was heated wrapped in a towel and put under the covers and your bed was nice and warm for hours.  You took your bath in the kitchen in a wash tub using Palmolive soap....then into a flannel nightgown.  I remember when Donnie Nothnagel was born.  He was placed in a padded shoebox.  The box was placed on the oven door.  worked as good as the hospital.  He got along fine.  We ironed with flat irons.  They were heated on the stove.  The stove was cooled off-then a coat of stove blacking was applied- then you used Bon Ami and crumpled newspaper or old rag to buff the chrome trim.  It took alot of washing to remove the polish from your hands.

The flat irons was used until it cooled.  Then released the heavy iron from its handle.  You then clamped the handle to the hot iron."

"Our winter lives revolved around the kitchen stove.  The wind would pile up snowdrifts to the windowsills but inside our kitchen was toasty warm.  The only bad part was you had to carry in corn cobs-kindling and coal.  Then you had to carry out the ashes.  You had to carry in water to keep reservoir full.  That was your water heater for dishes-bath-Everytime you came in with frozen toes and fingers it took only a few minutes beside the stove and you were fine again.  We hated to leave the kitchen to go to bed in a cold bedroom.  We would rush back in the morning to dress beside the stove.  Once in a while if you got to close you had a burned posterior."

And that's all she had to say about that!  More memories to share another day.

Hope you all have a very blessed Easter!