What Lies Beneath (064/366)

“Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.”

Jonathan Swift (Irish Author and Satirist of prose, 1667-1745)

TIME:  11:57 AM
PLACE:  Bathroom
SUBJECT:  Bottom of bathtub

Do you remember that little demolition project way back in March of 2009?  Well, it’s been in a state of limbo ever since.  This stagnation was mainly due to 1) money-lack of; 2) time; 3) sewer issues that needed to be completed before more remodeling could proceed; 4) time; and 5) money-lack of.  This past fall, the HH broke up the basement floor, dug outside, laid new plastic sewer pipe and moved the sewer stack.  THAT was a huge project all unto itself.  Now, we are finally able to move forward with the actual bathroom transformation.  Oh, wait, first we had to put a temporary bath in downstairs.  Having a commode we can use on a daily basis is essential.  We demoed the remaining bathroom upstairs which included removing the old tub.  The tub wasn’t original to the house.  We’re thinking they replaced the first one (probably a claw foot) with a more modern version around 1951 or a little later.  How do we know?  Because we looked at what was on the bottom of it.  We learned a lot of information about the bathtub.  I took a picture, then HH and my dad took a sledge hammer to it - it was the only way we were going to be able to get that 300-400 pound beast down the stairs and out of the house.

Casting Iron In The Fire (086/365)

 
“Cast iron is so superior for cooking utensils to our modern aluminum that I not only cannot grieve for the pioneer hardship of cooking in iron over the hearth, but shall retire if necessary to the back yard with my two Dutch ovens, turning over all my aluminum cookers for airplanes with a secret delight.”

Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, 'Cross Creek' (1942)

TIME:  4:13 PM
PLACE:  Girl Scout Camp
SUBJECT:  Cooking pots

StellaDella’s Daisy troop had an overnight camp-out this weekend.  DramaQueen went with us as well.  We left today at 11am and plan on returning tomorrow at noon.  Another mom started the campfire and she and I oversaw the cooking of the chicken legs in cast iron pots.  The girls covered the legs with BBQ sauce and cola and we took them out and set them in the fire.  In about an hour they were done.  They tasted pretty good, SD had two of them for supper.  We also hiked, played outside games and made some crafts.  We are sleeping inside “lodges” that have bathrooms and a small kitchen – for that I am eternally grateful.

Casting Shadows (032/365)

 
Geoff Carter: Got a match?
Bonnie Lee: Say, don't you ever have any?
Geoff: No, don't believe in laying in a supply of anything.
Bonnie: Matches, marbles, money, women.
Geoff: That's right.
Bonnie: No looking ahead, no tomorrows, just today.
Geoff: That's right.

Jules Furthman (1888-1960), U.S. screenwriter, and Howard Hawks. Geoff Carter (Cary Grant), Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), Only Angels Have Wings, Geoff Carter's philosophy of life (1939). Based On A Story By Howard.

TIME:  7:28 PM
PLACE:  The kitchen
SUBJECT:   Cast Iron Match Holder

This match holder used to reside by the stove at my parent’s lake house in Carlyle, Illinois.  The pilot light on the stove’s gas burners didn’t work.  So we used a match to light the gas ring when cooking.  Dad sold the property a few years ago and when we were clearing out the house, I laid my claim on it.  I got dibs on the holder because I had originally purchased it for Mom from an antique mall back in the late 1980’s. Nowadays, replicas are easily available from many merchants on the web, but this one is an original.  It hangs in my kitchen, but I don’t have matches in it…yet, I’m waiting until StellaDella is a little older.  I’m paranoid that way. 
~*~*~
My Aunt Dolores passed away last night.  She was 78 years old and was married to my Dad’s brother for 53 years.  Her youngest daughter Kathleen & I are good friends as well as cousins.  Rest in peace Aunt Dee.  I’ll always have fond memories of the fried bologna sandwiches you would make when I spent the night at your house.