Good Day "59"

Glad to hear it John, me too, I've eaten a meal tonight for the first time in a couple of days.

I remember bringing the buckets of coal in from outside before school so my dad could light the fire. It always involved making some fire lighters out of newspaper, a lot of blowing, and sheet of newspaper behind the fire guard, sometimes the paper caught fire, and several times the cat got singed too, I remember the smell of burning fur but he never learnt. 

   Hi All, glad to hear Ruth and John feeling better today.

   I seem to remember I had to fill the coke  hod for the boiler. Think I got 3d , not sure if that was per week or each hod full.

It's been an long day today...raining outside and wind/rain storm incoming from the coast..I've heated with oil furnance, gas furnace, baseboard electric heat, electric furnace, woodstove, propane, keroscene...fireplace. Of all of them...gas furnaceand/or fireplace is nice...followed by wood stove and what we have now electric furnace but its expensive...in monthy heating bills. Propane gets better every year. Keroscene you have to understand how to deal with it and get it warm outside, before you heat anything with it inside. For us mostly the garage back then.  I've never heated with coal, nor steam heat.. which is popular back east. Electric heat isn't any cleaner and it feels like colder heat to me... then does natural gas. I like the crackling of the fireplace also, puts me in an dreamy mood... but wood is getting harder every year to find also. Solar I would like to try out someday, but it's just as expensive these days, because you can't have it without going through an local utility company...they created an "monopoly" on having it now. Leslie tells me that it's useless also if your house isn' t well insulated..her thing with it is her greenhouse growing. Living up in the mountains of Colorado, she still retreats to an woodstove downstairs in the worse weather and underground. She has backed up her small greenhouse with an wall of rubber tires as it faces the south side, besides using the solar panels but she has an small woodstove in there also...for back up.she's now harvesting "spring greens" and ususally tomatoes over winter when we buy the tasteless variety at the store, paying big dollars for them. She buys fire "bricks" to burn in her wood stove, as they are above tree line almost. Has them sent by pallets in an big truck in the sumer time(from Ohio)..each "unit" plastic wrapped and keeps out the  moisture...puts  them in her garage. She would like an tunnel from her lower part of her house out to the road for in the winter...and one where she can insulate for pantry items along the side and park various types of equiptment in it also. I think she said her hubby is on road maintence...for an job...that includes plowing off snow. I know she drives an tractor herself at times...mower. She has chickens also and an small barn...few fruit trees. Lives up above Denver, Colorado. Always on her roof replacing blown off roofing over winter at times also...has her own Ham radio Shack and is an liscended radio operator. ..was really "big" on Art Bell when he was on the air waves.  Busy lady..she now works in " insurance" in the area.

Good afternoon. so pleased that you Ruth &John are feeling better,

I can remember with my Sister looking after a Stew on a Parrafin stove while our Mum went to work, She had four of us to bring up in a one up  and one down house when our Dad was killed on a Farm.  We had to get out of the Farm house as it was a tied house

Good evening. That must have been a hard life without your dad Pat. It's amazing how people managed. I wonder how many would cope these days, very few without a lot of moaning I fear.

Catch you later, it's Davids Birthday and we are just getting ready to go out for a meal. I'm glad I'm a lot better, we wouldn't have been able to go a couple of days ago. 

  Evening and Ruth please pass on birthday greetings to David

                   "Penn-bloedh lowen dhiso jy."