Fire in the Kitchen

"Tell a story from your childhood that involves fire."

As a young teen, you could often find me in the kitchen doing a little baking. I loved making cookies, cakes and other sweets for the family. And they loved gobbling them up. I remember that my brothers would come in for some cookies on their way out to the fields. They would say something like,

"Hmmm, that's about a ten cookie field." They measured the time it took to finish a task by how many cookies they would eat while doing it!

Well, that really has nothing to do with the memories I want to share today; other than you can usually find me in the kitchen. My friend and blog partner shared a story about catching her kitchen on fire and it reminded me of my own kitchen fire story.

Cinnamon flavored Apple Jelly

photo credit Webstarauntstore.com

My favorite jelly is Cinnamon flavored apple jelly. Schmucker's makes it but usually, you can only find it in those packets on the table at Cracker Barrell or Bob Evan's Restaurant. So we found a recipe for making this delicious condiment from apple juice. One particular Saturday I set my sights on making a batch. And maybe a few other flavors, too.

With jellies, the best way to preserve them is to just pour some paraffin wax on top of the jelly and it will seal the delicacy inside the jar. This would allow you to have jelly for months that never spoiled!

My jelly was made. The jars were all set at one end of the bar to wait for sealing. I began melting down some paraffin in a saucepan on the stove. For some unknown reason, I placed a lid on the saucepan.

Oh wait; It's lunchtime!

At this point, I realized that it was lunchtime. A good BLT sandwich for everyone sounded like the perfect meal on a warm day. I changed gears and began slicing tomatoes, preparing some lettuce, making bacon and toasting bread.

Ways to Cook Bacon

Now you can fry bacon in a skillet which I hate especially if you are frying more than 2 or 3 pieces. The grease splatters everywhere and it's just messy. With a family as large as ours, this was not the preferred way. I recently learned that you can easily bake bacon on a cookie sheet. For some reason, it doesn't splatter everywhere and you don't have to stand over a hot stove so long. I wish I had known this back then!

Bacon in the Microwave

I choose to bake the bacon in the microwave. This process includes layering the bacon between sheets of paper towels and placing it in the microwave.  In just a minute or so, you can have nice crispy bacon. Yum!

Down from the jelly jars, I had all the ingredients for BLTs I pulled out the bacon and bacon separating the paper towels from the stack of bacon. At this point, I remembered the paraffin melting on the stove, covered by a lid.

Side Note: Define Paraffin

a flammable, whitish, translucent, waxy solid consisting of a mixture of saturated hydrocarbons, obtained by distillation from petroleum or shale and used in candles, cosmetics, polishes, and sealing and waterproofing compounds.

Instant Combustion

I quickly grabbed the pan with the lid still on and carried it to the working bar. You know the one with bacon and greasy paper towels all over it. I lifted the lid allowing air to reach the now very hot paraffin. This created an instant fire which spread quickly across the bar. Now I had a large fire, flames stretching upward higher than my head.

Kitchen Fire Demonstration by the Fire Department
free photo image by Jorgelman at Pixabay

Mom Saves the Day

Thank heavens for level-headed mothers. She came quickly and knew just what to do to extinguish a grease fire. 

Cover the fire to stop it from spreading. When oxygen can no longer reach the flammable object, the fire will extinguish.

Thank heavens! We kept the fire from spreading beyond the bar. I had a good burn on my hand but we were all safe. At that point, my knees began to buckle from realizing what I had just done. It's a tough way to learn a lesson but I certainly do know how to deal with a grease fire now.

 A Few Tips About Cooking with Grease or Oil

1. Remember Benjamin Franklin's Proverb. "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 
2. Don't cook distracted and keep ways to stop a fire nearby.
3. Keep grease at the recommended temperature.
4. Keep a metal lid handy in case of fire.
5. No children in the kitchen while cooking with grease.
6. Don't extinguish with water. Water will carry the grease along with the fire to other areas.

Do you have an experience with fire you would share? Maybe you have another helpful tip. Please leave it in the comments below.

https://mandysheritage.blogspot.com/p/the-farmers-wifes-cookbook.html

Another Lesson from the Farm

This post is inspired by a prompt in the journal, "Reflections of a Mother's Heart". The Prompt: Did you ever have a special hideaway?"

 Each year, the challenge was different.

Once the hay was all in the barns, each of us would take the challenge. Somewhere in the huge stack of fresh hay bales was a tunnel. Not just a straight tunnel through the hay, but one that took various turns. Left. Right. Up. Down. Once, I remember a rather large opening in the middle.

It was a specialty of my brother Doug. He stacked the hay and created the tunnels. Not sure what got him started doing it. Maybe just for a challenge to change up the doldrums of stacking bale after bale in order. Or maybe the loft was just that much too large. All I know is that we enjoyed finding our way through.

Speaking of stacking bale after bale

I'm reminded that Doug took a lot of pride in stacking the most square and orderly wagon of hay. Back in the day, hay was not rolled up in a huge ball and left in the fields. It was baled into a rectangle. Some farms had a bale thrower which baled the hay and then threw the bales into a wagon. 

But on our farm

Wagon built by Dad & brother
maybe others

The bales were carefully stacked on the wagon usually by Doug. I laugh thinking about the times we hired some high school boy to come out and stack the hay. Those wagon loads were a sight to see. And many times, they didn't make it back to the barn before the hay was falling in every direction on the road.

Anyway, Doug took real pride in having an orderly load of hay, stacked nice and tight. They only thing that kept this from happening was ... uh, the driver which was usually Kandy or me. :(


Picture This

Doug takes the bale from the baler, carries it to the already stacked hay, and lifts the bale above his head to toss it up on the top row. About this time, there is a large clump of hay being baled, the driver realizes she must slow down or the baler will shear a pin due to too much hay at one time. So she puts her foot on the break. This causes a chain reaction. You know, 

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

Since Doug is focused completely on tossing the bale up and back, he has no idea that the train of equipment is stopping.... uh, maybe somewhat abruptly. I think you know the result.

Usually, he wasn't all that happy with me,  I mean, whoever was driving. But the result was really six to one, half a dozen to the other. Because he didn't get happy over a sheared pin either.
And either probably resulted in extra work.

But regardless, we got the job done. 

And most of the time we drove into the barnyard with a beautifully stacked wagon of hay. 

I'm not sure who or how Doug was trained, but there was certainly an example set before him. It may have been Uncle George. Here is a picture of him and my big sister climbing one of those lovely wagons of hay. 

Climbing the Hay Wagon

Doug and Kandy 1962

Lesson Learned

1 Corinthians 14:40(NLT)  be sure that everything is done properly and in order.

Whatever you do should be done properly. If you do it well the first time, you don't have to go back a correct the problem. If hay is stacked haphazardly, it usually will fall causing a huge clean-up job and lost time.

1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT) whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Take pride in what you do. Wether you enjoy doing it or not. Whatever work you are doing, do it as if you are working for the Lord.

Just another lesson from being "Raised in a Barn"

Play is the Work of Childhood

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. 

Play is really the work of childhood.

- Fred Rogers

There were 6 of us children ranging across 16 years when I was growing up on the farm. My brother, LeAdam is the youngest. I was nearly 12 when he was born. In a lot of ways, I watched him grow up rather than growing up with him.

My sister and I were in junior high and high school when Le was playing hard in the backyard. He had his trucks and tractors and spent many hours "bringing in the crops". This was a common event because he just followed suit for what dad and the older siblings did so often.

I didn't really think much about what children play until one day when Kandy came home with a funny story. She had a friend that lived in town. This friend also happened to have a small brother. On this particular day, Kandy was in town and saw little Danny playing in the dirt. She asked him, "What are you doing today?"

Expecting something like "Baling hay!" she was a little surprised to hear him say matter-of-factly, " .. putting in sewer lines." It had never really crossed our minds that a town kid would play differently than the farm kid. It's the whole "Like Father, Like son" idiom.

Now I wasn't one to play with trucks and tractors, I was more of a mommy type. I can remember dressing the cat and pushing it around in my baby buggy. I'm not sure why the cat put up with that!

I loved the animals too. Especially the young stock. We had a small fenced-in pasture for the calves just off the backyard. There was a fallen tree that created for us a small cove that we used as a show ring.

Our family participated in several cattle shows every summer. We selected the best two or three cows, cleaned them up, trained them to be on a halter, and took them to shows. Alex and I, along with our friends, would have our own little cattle shows back in the cove. We spruced up the calves and paraded them around in a circle while one of us did the judging.

Mr. Fred Rogers was evidently right. Our play was a serious learning time. We all ended up doing well at the county fair and other cattle shows around the state. I even won a 4-H cattle judging competition once!

This post was  inspired by a writing prompt in "Reflections from a Mother's Heart". The prompt was "What was your favorite pastime as a child? Did you prefer to do it alone or with someone else."

Photos from Columbia County Fair in Portage, WI 1976

Doug & Kandy

Alex ~ 1st in showmanship

Me with my cow, Marietta

What was your favorite pastime growing up?

Camping Might Just Save Your Soul

This post is inspired by a prompt from Reflections of a Mother's Heart

The prompt was "Did you ever go camping with your family? Where? Record one exceptional camping experience."  

Our family never went camping. Having a farm to run kept us pretty close to home. On top of which, if we were going to take a vacation, why would we want to go out in nature and have all that work to do. That would be no vacation.

But there was one thing we did every summer. Family Camp Meeting! This was the time we looked forward to each and every summer. 

Sebring Holiness Camp was just down the road from us. Close enough that we could all go during the day and the guys came home to milk the cows in the mornings and evenings. 


*Photo credit ... wish I had my own but these pictures all came from  Sebring Camp Ground Facebook

Sebring Bookstore

The last few years we attended, my
 mother also ran the little bookstore at the camp. It was a small building the size of a garage, in fact, I think it was a garage or shed in the winter. But we loaded it up with shelves for books. Folks came by to browse and purchase books and music during the off times.

Oh, the memories and friendships that were built on that campground. Ten

Cottages with front porches line the
sides of the tabernacle

days of meeting with the Lord

 in an open-air tabernacle. Little cabins with porches built all around the tabernacle. If you owned one, you could enjoy the services right there on the porch.

Normally, we borrowed an RV from some friends and stayed in it. The campground had a large area with hook-ups for this. There were also dormitories. I got to stay in the dormitories one year when I finally became a teenager and was able to participate in the teen program.

The teens had their own tabernacle where they worshiped in the morning and met in the afternoon for fun such as skits, or maybe just to head to the pool.

 In 1975, the cost for ten days of camp was a mere $10-$15. Of course, we were obliged to also serve meals and wash dishes. Not really the drudgery you might think, though. We loved helping the elderly with their trays and singing was often heard wafting through the campgrounds from the cafeteria. 

In the evening service, everyone joined together in the main tabernacle for amazing worship time. We had a wonderful pianist. She had such a talent. She could hear a song and begin playing it as if she knew the song all her life. What melodious tunes would come from that piano! We all remember that music like it was yesterday. She played by ear. The year I was there as a teenager, she would come to our meetings and play. I recall a couple girls introducing a new song. By the time they had finished singing it through, she was playing it like she has known it all her life.

I imagine she was an inspiration to me for playing the piano. I never became brave enough to try to play by ear, but I practiced enough to read almost any music you put in front of me. I remember telling Mom that hearing her play made me want to give up playing.

Most of my memories were in the children's tabernacle where we learned Bible stories and sang songs on our own level. In the afternoon, we returned for arts and crafts. One year we made a painting on glass. We painted the back blues, whites, and greens. This created the background for our picture. Then on the front, the picture we painted the pictures. I was sort of a 3-D effect.

These things were wonderful but the greatest event for me happened right in the tabernacle. There were 2 evangelists that year taking turns preaching. I don't remember the names, but one preacher I loved to listen to, the other, not so much. The less desired preacher had a way of speaking that tickled my friend and I. We called him Popcorn because of the rhythm of his speech.

But on the final night of camp meeting, he got my attention. He preached the infamous "Hellfire and Brimstone" sermon. My grandfather had recently passed away, so the reality of death was near to my heart. That night, I left my seat and walked the aisle. I knelt at an altar and ask Jesus to forgive me and He came into my life. Jesus remains on the throne of my heart to this day.

And that is why I still long to attend camp meeting. Many of these places have gone by the wayside. Many have shortened their meetings to a week or less. But my understanding is Sebring is still a ten-day event.

Do these pictures bring back any memories?

Do you have any memories from Holiness camp meeting?
[Sebring, Camp Sychar, Indian Springs, Camp Adrian, or others]

How to Spend Memorial Day

This post is inspired by a prompt from Reflections of a Mother's Heart

The prompt was "Did you attend family reunions? Share memories from one."

The Hukill Family Reunion

Every year, we traveled down to SE Ohio on Memorial Day to meet up with my dad's family. This was his mother's side of the family. They had been keeping this tradition for years, really generations. It still happens today, though the crowd has dwindled and they meet at a church instead of the farm.

We would load up in our "Rambler" and take the long drive. If you've ever been in SE Ohio, then you know that it's a pretty hilly country. I don't think there was a year when one or more of us didn't get a little nauseous on the ride. [More rambler memories, click here]

But we finally arrived close enough to drive through the small towns. Usually, we would get  caught in a parade. After all, it was a holiday. We never saw any of the parades, just had to stop and wait for them to open the road again.

It was all  worth the ride when we arrived at Aunt Julia's farm. First, we went into the house to be squeezed and hugged by all our aunts, uncles, and my great grandmother, Birdie Moody. Such a precious lady with long gray hair wrapped up in a bun on her head. She called everyone of us girls "Susie". Not sure why, but maybe cause the youngest of us cousins was named Susie and that's the one she remembered. Or maybe it was just her name for beloved grandchildren... who knows.

The next place we headed, was out back. Now I'm pretty sure that the house had indoor plumbing by this time, but we were fascinated by the outhouse in the back yard. Thinking back, I'm not sure why that would be a fascination. ha!

That little girl is me with my mom
at Aunt Julia's place

Oh, the fun we had with cousins, first second and third. It was a great time of fellowship and getting to know each other again. I miss those days. [My kids barely know their first cousins by name.] We're missing out on something good, I do believe.

Then there was the food. Oh my goodness, the food. Back in those days people knew how to cook and we all eat way more than we needed. I'll never forget Aunt Mildred's "dumplings". Different from the dumplings eaten here in the south, they were especially good when doused over mashed potatoes. I'll trying till my dying days to find someone who knows how to make them.

Later in the day, someone would bring out a big 5 gallon tub of ice cream. All of the kids, young and old, would come running for their ice cream cone. There's nothing better than good, ole ice cream to finish off the day.

And this is just a taste, of how Memorial Day should be spent.


What kind of Memorial Day memories do you have?

Portrait of my Mother

an adaptation of the Proverbs 31 Woman (The Voice)

 

Who can find a truly excellent woman mother? 

One who is superior in all that she is and all that she does?

    Her worth far exceeds that of rubies and expensive jewelry.

She inspires trust, and her husband’s heart is safe with her,

    and because of her, he has every good thing.

Every day of her life she does what is best for him,

    never anything harmful or hurtful.

Delight attends her work and guides her fingers

    as she selects the finest fabrics and patterns for sewing.

She moves through the mall and discount stores 

like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, 

arriving home with bargains 

and fine treasures for her family.

She rises from bed early, while we milk the cows,

 carefully preparing a delicious breakfast for us.

She has a plan. 

She computes the farm finances. 

She plants a garden or two.

She wraps herself in prayer, 

carries herself with confidence,

    and works hard, 

strengthening her arms for the task at hand.

She sells books in town during the day 

and teaches piano in the evenings.

Mom, Dad, & grandchild, Carson

 Her hands skillfully sew a dress with one while holding a baby in the other.

 

Mom and Aunt Ruby

She reaches out to foster children and takes dinner to a grieving or hurting neighbor.

She is not worried about the cold or snow for her family, 

for she has bundled them up in hats and scarfs

 and covered them with prayer.

Mom on the cruise 2016

 She makes blankets 

for her grandchildren 

and is always clothed

 in bright pink or red.

 

Everyone recognizes her husband

 in the public square,

    and no one fails to respect him

 as he takes his place 

on the school board

 and the Gideons.

Mom and I.
 I'm wearing the dress she made
for her wedding.

She makes satin dresses

for brides & their maids 

    and she sells seeds 

to people everywhere online.

Clothed in strength and dignity, 

with nothing to fear,

    she smiles when she thinks

 about the future.

Mom & I 1965

She sings with the ladies at church, 

  

and teaches Sunday School 

 every Sunday 

She directs the Vacation Bible School 

every summer and seldom 

takes a moment for herself.

Her Children rise up and call her blessed

Family at 60th Anniversary Cruise 2016

    Her husband, too, joins in the praise, saying:

 

“There are some—indeed many—mothers 

who do well in every way, 

but of all of them only you are truly excellent.”

 

Charm can be deceptive and physical beauty will not last,

    but a mother who reveres the Eternal should

be praised above all others.

 

Celebrate all she has achieved.

    Let all her accomplishments publicly praise her.

-----

Just a few of the things I could say about my mother;