I had a startling revelation this morning. We have always lived in cold houses. To tell the truth, I have always lived in a cold house. The house we grew up in was cold. My sister and I would race to the dining room to dress for school, just so we could stand by the heater. Of course that had to stop in Jr. High, then we just hogged the bathroom. Making everybody mad.
The first house Buck and I lived in was cold. When you walked by the north wall you could feel cold air blowing through. The curtains would wave as if the windows were open on a warm balmy summer's eve. Only it was January, and it was far from warm and balmy. We had this old furnace. It would run and never shut off, it warmed enough to keep you from hypothermia, thats about it. When we would be gone over the weekend, the bosses wife would go into our house and turn it down...they said we were using to much propane. It would take about a day, before the darn thing would catch up with the cold, and the house would be fairly warm.
Our next house was the only truly warm house we ever lived in. It was an old old house, but it was built like a tank. And the folks that owned the place kept it up. I loved that little house. It was a cute one.
We lived in one while Buck was getting over a broken leg. That is a whole nother story, I will leave for later. This was by far the coldest house we ever lived in. Something was wrong with the propane tank. It would just go off for no reason, and then it would come back on. A real problem if it was night and you were sleeping. We had to turn off the heaters every night, just to make sure we would be alive in the morning. Well the month of February blew in like a lion. Oh my word it was cold. We had a fire place in the living room. You would literally stand and get warm on the back and then turn and get warm on the front. Finally we decided to just move into our bedroom and wait till spring. We moved the TV, and we moved Jen in. She was just a wee thing. We had a king size water bed, yes I know, how dorky. But.....that heated water kept us from freezing to death. It was pretty cozy. In the morning, we would take turns on who would have to be the one that raced to the kitchen and lit the burners on the cookstove, and open the oven door to warm the place up. I lost every house plant I had. They froze to death. Not only that, and this is a true story, I kid you not. Jen had a goldfish in her room. My brain thawed out enough to remember that it needed to be fed. I went to feed it and the bowl was frozen, as was little Oscar the fish. True story, I swear. We lived in our bedroom till March, finally it was warm enough we could use the rest of the house.
When we lived up in the panhandle of Texas. We lived in a trailer house, on the feed yard that DH worked for. Now there is no place on the earth as cold as Gruver Texas. The house we had was fairly new, and it was nice. But the heater they put in it was no match for a winter in the Texas panhandle. When the wind blew, and it did about 90% of the time, it would blow out the flame on the heater. Dh spent many a long night trying to get the thing to re-lite. Every time you would stick a match in it, the wind would poof it out. He did extensive modification on this thing, but never got it completely fixed.
We finally moved out here. Everybody said how cold it was the winter we moved here was...Ha we felt like we had moved to Southern California.
This house that we live in now. Is warm...as long as the fire doesn't go out, and the wind isn't blowing. It is an old house, probably around 70-80 years are so. But it is a sturdy old thing. Just needs new windows, doors, and a really good heating system.
I love wood heat, but sometimes it would be nice to just turn a switch. DH says that wood heat keeps you warmer. You get warm while you are cutting the wood, and you get warm when you are hauling it to the house.
Anyway, I have no idea where this post came from. Or why I even posted it. I guess I was just inspired by the feel of frost upon my nose when I got up out of my warm bed this morning.
Yall have a great day!
God Bless and Happy Trails
Ranch Wife
5 comments:
Cold houses make ya tough. :) I'll have central in our new house.It sure will be niiiice. :P
The house we're in now is cooold. You can see daylight in certain cracks...like under the doors, windows, etc. And we miss wood heat! Our poor woodstove is all lonely in the workshop thanks to no room in this chilly farmhouse! Oh well.
Thank goodness for baseboard heaters in the girls' room upstairs. Everyone threatens to move it when it gets bad. :-)
Thank you for the laugh, M! I always enjoy my coffee stop here.
My parents have a wood stove, and it does wonders. Our new house is really drafty because of the open-floor plan, and it stays purty chilly, especially if we don't want to pay for a gas bill that costs as much as the monthly grocery bill. In other news, I got a sourdough crock!!! You'd be so proud, I picked it up brand new, in the box at the thrift store for 2.00! The only draw back is that it has holly berries on the front, kind of like it's a holiday crock, however, for 2.00 I wasn't going to fuss. It does have a lid that fits snug, so I'll have to figure out something else for that. Anyway, it's earthenware and it looks glazed, which I'm guessing is okay. The box said "biscuit barrel" so we'll see. I'm gonna get a starter going tonight. Thanks for the thoughts and wish me luck!
Ah, yes, Gruver, the good old days!!! Remember the fun times we had in the cold there?
We are almost out of wood and can't really get out to cut any - too much snow! Ha! Living in the high desert you just never know what the weather will do. Stay warm and keep that fire going.
Our old house stayed pretty cold. Now we moved that old junker out and got a new one. It is a lot warmer when my dad lets it. My apartment in Bisbee was mostly warm. It could get real cold at times. The two small heaters I had didn't work too well with those single pane windows and a 1/2 inch gap under the door. I liked it. I wish we were allowed to make a fire in our fireplace. Father wants to put in a different fireplace and doesn't want soot when he does it so we can't use it at all. Anyway, your house never seemed cold while I was there. Maybe I just haven't gotten over there when it was real cold outside. Enjoy the wood stove.
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