First Fire of the Season!

  Fall has just hit the Bayou and I have already made the first fire of the season in the old wood stove.  The old, cast-iron parlor stove never looked so inviting as it does right now.  The glowing embers give the entire room a bit of ambiance that it lacked just yesterday.  This stove is one that my dear Uncle Alfred gave to me just before he moved from next door.  He and I were big buddies so when he offered the old stove to me, I was quite honored. "Crawl up under the house and on the west side there is a stove.  You might have to dig around a bit to find all of the pieces but it is there and should be in good shape." he told me. Thankfully, my oldest son was still at home and did not mind going up under the big house.  Granted there was an ideal crawl space under the house that allowed plenty of movement.  My son toted out piece after piece and Uncle Alfred helped me to assemble the stove in his front yard.  We worked until he was satisfied that all the parts had been found. The stove has sat proudly in my dining room since that day and I would not have it any other way.  Every time I use it, I think of this dear old man and my buddy!

  Now, back to that fire and why it has been lit even though our temperatures were in the triple digits this afternoon.  No, I am not daft.  No, I did not have a fit of sudden chills. I just wanted the ambiance that only the old stove could offer.  I promise that it did not heat the Little Bayou House any hotter than it already was!

  The lighting of the old parlor stove is a "parlor trick".  It is merely a string of orange Halloween lights, some bubblewrap and a few twigs from the yard.  I needed the "look" for the upcoming Clue Hunt on the Bayou.  The dining room has been transformed into a study so the fire was a must.  Obviously, there is nothing better than curling up in a comfy chair in front of a fire place while reading a good book.  Fireplace with glowing embers...check.  Comfy chair....check.  Good book....check! The stage is set!

  I am sure that in the coming weeks, the parlor stove will be called into actual use.  Since nothing has been done that cannot be "undone", I am good to go.  In the meantime, I will light my "fire" and dream of cold, winter nights.....and a good book!

Hunting for a Remedy!

I am really feeling my age lately (and we will not go into just what age that is!). I ache! Throwing a cast net, standing on ladders and shoveling dirt are probably not helping things one bit. As a matter of fact, I imagine these things exacerbate the aches and pains tremendously. It is just hard for me to stop doing all of these things and many more. For instance..today, instead of waiting for someone else, I decided to install a light fixture. This would not have been too difficult had it not been twelve feet up and needed to have screws inserted into some really hard wood. Balancing myself on top of step ladder while pushing on a screwdriver took the use of some muscles that have been dormant for some time. So now I am paying for my impatience. Not one to take any sort of medicines if I can at all avoid it, I decided to turn to my vast amount of herbs for relief. Off to the kitchen to make a potion as my nephew calls it. I pulled several herbs that I know have pain relieving effects and bruised, blended and heated. Now a concoction of Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Sassafras and oil will steep overnight. Actually, this smells really nice and looks a lot more like salad dressing than an arthritis cure. Tomorrow will be a test run of the quality of this remedy..hopefully, the arthritis in my hands will respond well to this treatment. I might be aging but I still have far too many things that I want to do and achy hands and joints just will not be tolerated!

I thought I might show you another neat way to use cheesecloth for Halloween decorations. Here on the Bayou, it is very rare that we have cool enough weather in October to use the fireplace as it is intended. But..then again, it is not so rare for me to use things in ways that they are not intended to be used. To give the empty fireplace a much creepier appearance than just a big, gaping hole, I made "ghost" fire! I placed a few real logs on the grating in the fire box and I hid a standard "black light" lamp at the base of the logs. ("Black light" or ultraviolet light lamp.)

To do this, I merely placed the black light on the floor of the fireplace near the logs and then placed a log between the light and the hearth. The cord from the light was extended out the side of the fireplace but was hidden by the fire screen. Next step is to prepare the "flames". This is done the same way that we made the cheesecloth ghost. I just cut strips of cheesecloth, soaked them in liquid starch and twisted one end to bring them to a point. They were then laid them on a foil-lined cookie sheet to dry..I did curve them a bit to make them more "flame-like". (You can "speed" dry them by placing them in a pre-warmed oven that has been turned off. Do not place them in an oven that is still on as it is a fire hazard!) After they dry, arrange them in the fireplace, keeping in mind how flames would look. Just poke them in between the logs to make them stand erect. Make sure to put some in front of and some in back of the logs. Turn on the black light.. tada!.. ghost fire! You can leave them like this as the black light will make them glow or you can do as I did and lightly spritz them with (of all things) Mr. Clean! Make sure it is the original yellow colored Mr. Clean and not the new types. The original type will make the "flames" glow even brighter! This does give the old fireplace an eerie glow! (Without the added heat..something that we do not need this far in the South!) You can take this one step further and add a tiny fan to make the flames move but it really is not necessary..they look fine as they are! Oooohhh..creepy ghost fire! Hehe!

Orange Dogs

Orange Dogs! No.. my dog, Ezzy, is not being dressed up as a pumpkin for Halloween. I am not even one that dresses her up as anything as I am quite sure she would probably eat any costume that I put on her! As matter of fact, I am not even talking about Ezzy or any other dog. I am referring to a caterpillar. My citrus trees were under attack by some unknown assailant that was chewing off some of the leaves. It seemed to prefer the new, tender leaves so I figured that I would not have a difficult time finding the culprit. I looked and looked. I peered under and atop the leaves. Finally..there it was! Staring me in the face (as much as a caterpillar can stare) was an orange dog! I understand the reasoning behind the "orange" part of the name even though they are not orange. They are particularly fond of citrus leaves..lemons, limes and..get this..oranges! But to be honest, it beats me as to why they are called "dogs". They do not resemble a dog at all. Rather, they bear a strong resemblance to bird poop! I mean a really strong resemblance! They even smell bad! The strange thing about the Orange Dogs is that they will eventually turn into a beautiful Giant Swallowtail butterfly! How does something so ugly make the change into such a beautiful creature as a butterfly is beyond me. You talk about your "Ugly Duckling" fairy tale!

After the caterpillar incident, it was time for some more Halloween fun! I put up some more garland of Fall leaves and then headed for the entryway. This room is far becoming my favorite "theme" room. The parlor look was coming along right well after hanging the creepy cloth curtains and arranging the shelf of "family portraits" but I still wanted to add some more "special effects". The old cast iron parlor stove looked bland sitting there vacant and unused. To build a real fire in it would be a tad stupid since there are no stove pipes to vent the smoke. Fake fire! I wanted a dark and gloomy "parlor" to greet guests on Halloween night and a grate full of smoldering embers would be perfect. To create this look, I first placed a crumpled piece of aluminum foil on top of the grating in the stove. Next, an unobtrusive wire basket from the kitchen shelf would hold my "embers". Two (twenty count) strings of white lights, a piece of orange glass and some clear glass marbles became my fire. This was topped with enough tiny (two inch) pine cones to cover most of the marbles. The wires from the lights were strung up through the back of the stove where the piping should go and plugged into an extension cord. Now the moment of truth.Would it appear to be hot coals? Yes!! It worked! The "blinkers" on the

lights added the look of "burning" coals. I now have a fiery wood stove that won't heat up this tiny room on Halloween night! No need to cook my guests! Little by little, my creepy parlor is coming to fruition! Maybe a few ghosts should be enjoying this cozy little nook..we shall see!!!