Speak softly and carry a wrench

Sheila Donnelly

I ran into a neighbor over the weekend and she told me that her two teenage daughters had the flu on Christmas day, so that they ended up in bed and couldn't eat all the fancy Christmas food. I was sympathetic and then I told her how my Christmas went and she didn't think hers was so bad.

The first thing that happened was Tom had to dig a grave on Christmas Day. He has been digging graves for 16 years and this is the first time he has had to go off to work on Christmas Day. We open our gifts on Christmas morning and Tom missed opening the gifts with us, as he had left early to thaw the ground out over the grave. The frost is eight inches deep and Tom said that since we have had so little moisture this year that the ground is very dry and it is hard digging.

My six children, my son-in-law, my son's fiancee and my grandson were all at the house and after we opened gifts I started to make breakfast for everyone. My kitchen is still under construction since it was ripped apart a year ago, so there isn't that much room to get around in it. I was frying bacon and boiling water when I realized that the flame on the gas stove burners was extremely low. I said, "Oh no, we are low on propane."

We use 100-pound tanks to store the propane that are hooked to outlets that run into the house. There is always another full tank to switch too, but the reserve tank was not hooked up and I needed a pipe wrench to attach it to the gas outlet and the pipe wrench was in Tom's truck. I have a wood heater in the kitchen so I fired it up and cooked breakfast on top of it.

After breakfast was over, Tom showed up and I asked him to change propane tanks so I could cook dinner. He said, "I don't think the tank is empty yet." He turned on the burners and they worked fine. Tom opened his gifts, ate breakfast and then left to dig the grave.

The rest of us cleaned up the kitchen, took a walk, played games, and then about 2 p.m. I went out to the kitchen to make dinner and the burners didn't work. There was absolutely no flame. I had mentioned to Tom to leave the pipe wrench with me, but he had forgotten. I then decided to use the outdoor grill and cooked the ham and sweet potatoes over charcoal. I fired up the wood burner in the kitchen again to boil potatoes and steam vegetables.

The kitchen got so hot as I used hickory wood in the stove. The kitchen was like a sauna with food steaming on top and the hot fire roaring below. We decided to have a good time and stay clear of the kitchen while dinner was cooking.

We drank wine and played cards until everything was ready at 5 p.m. when Tom came home. The dinner was delicious. The grilled sweet potatoes and ham were the best we have ever eaten. My daughter Mary said, "Mom you would have made a great frontier woman." Her husband Dave said, "Your mom is a frontier woman."

It was a fun day, even with all the mishaps. I had baked pie the day before so dessert was already made. Tom apologized for not being around to help out. I told him I wanted to make sure that I had a pipe wrench handy so I could switch tanks if this happened again.

"I have two pipe wrenches in my truck," said Tom.

"You have two?" Why don't you leave one here in the house?" I asked exasperated.

He shrugged his shoulders. We were both too tired to argue about it, but I am going to stick a pipe wrench under the bed so I will know where one is when I need it.