Strange disappearance recently. I had gone to the other farm to check out the old homesteader cabin, found raccoons or something had pried a window open. While closing up the window and nailing it shut I glanced in through the window to see if all was well. It was getting a little dark in there but I could tell something was missing. I could not see the big old wood burning kitchen stove. Surely my eyes were not that bad! Then I started to question my memory. Had we moved the stove? Sold it to someone? Was it ever really there?
I even considered the possibility that someone had broken in and stolen it. As my eyes adjusted to the low light I realized there was a dark cavern in the middle of the kitchen floor where the stove used to be.
Yes, the joists under the floor had apparently rotted away over time and allowed the stove to collapse into the cellar.
It could be a difficult task hauling the stove up out of the cellar. Anybody looking for a cheap wood stove?
Does it make me a geek if I'm curious what the pile of books and magazines are?
ReplyDeleteNot at all Orin. I'd be asking the same thing if I didn't already know what they were. Some old readers digests, some gardening magazines from the fifties along with other miscellaneous. I have moved the most interesting stuff to safer storage so the mice and or raccoons don't destroy it.
ReplyDeleteThe old magazines might hold some value on eBay, and you could always advertise the stove in your local paper. Better to sell it cheap, or even give it away (if it's not broken up) than let it go to waste.
ReplyDeleteGasp! We were just talking yesterday morning about how thieves go into these old houses and take everything they can get their hands on. I'm glad this wasn't the case.
ReplyDeleteI will be on the lookout for a good woodstove to bake bread in the summertime. But not before I get a summer kitchen, which Hubby doesn't see the value of. Still, a girl can dream ... and remember ... back to the day I had the use of a summer kitchen with a woodstove, and stood out there in the fresh air doing the dishes and keeping the fire going ... oh it was heaven.
That looks like a nice old rocker, Ralph. Hope you've taken it home.
Well there you go, a cheap stove not too far away either. The grates inside were not in the best shape as I recall though. That rocker looks good but is worn flat from being dragged across the floor so many years.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame. I hope it's not too badly broken up. Sadly, my Grandmother's stove sold at my late Father's estate sale for not very much. I wish I could have kept it. I still remember gathering pine cones for her as kindling and smelling fresh bread baking later in the day.
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