Mercury falling

Winter is almost at our door, not the damp, but the cold (at least for us). After huddling, wrapped in blankets the last few evenings in a vain attempt to keep warm, we bit the bullet and lit our first fire of the year last night. And oh, it was lovely!

Although we have ducted reverse cycle, DH still prefers our wood heater, and I tend to agree with him, there’s nothing quite like a genuine wood fuelled flame.

I grew up with an open wood fire in our lounge room and a wood fired stove in the kitchen, which doubled as our water heater. Fallen tress and branches were gathered from out in the paddocks and brought to the wood heap. No self respecting farm didn’t have a sizeable wood heap! It was then sawn into usable (usually) lengths using a piece of machinery built by my grandfather (I think) which was powered by a belt attached to the flywheel on the Lanz tractor. Then the fun began with the axe. I got to be a dab hand at splitting all but the most knotted and stubborn logs. If we wanted to have hot water and cook, we had to chop wood and get a fire going every day, winter and summer.

There was an art to setting a fire on the brick hearth in the lounge room. Tightly crunched up newspaper in the middle, small sticks then “tented” up around it, and a few medium sized “logs” added. We had a wooden framed screen that covered the entire fireplace and prevented sparks from flying out when the wood, especially pine, had a spitting fit. The screen was also great for placing a sheet of newspaper on to help the fire draw and boy, would it roar! On the odd occasion it needed a little helping hand, thank goodness for kerosene. Once the fire was established, the screen could be removed and we could enjoy the warmth, the dancing flames or stick the toasting fork in for an evening snack.

I fondly remember the nights we’d roll the lounge around to face the fire and all cram on to it. We’d talk, play scrabble, cards, or later, watch a little TV. So the “romance” of a genuine wood fuelled fire lives on.


Sunday 23 May 2004

AC1 – Day 19

My hair started falling out in larger amounts today in the shower – yuck! You shampoo and “wipe” your head under the shower and it comes out in handfuls. It sticks to your body and takes forever to wash off. It clogs the drain. You get out of the shower and towel dry your hair and more comes out, and more sticks to your body. Then you use a hairdryer and more sticks to your body so you use the dryer in an attempt blow it off – ugh!

The bald patches are starting.