The center of the home was usually a fireplace. This was replaced later by wood burning stoves, but let's just stick with the fireplace for now. The focal point of the fireplace was a trivet. Our forefathers were famous for using 3 points to hold and lift. My husband always said "Give me a pivot high enough and a lever long enough and I can lift the world." And I am sure many of our modern day inventions went back to that statement.
The trivet was a 3 point apparatus made of iron and usually was decorative, unless the man of the house was lazy. It set on the hearth, which is the floor of the fireplace. It usually had a hook that could pivot. The "tea kettle" was filled with water and hung near the fire. When hot water was needed the pot was swung over the fire and very quickly came to a boil. The water was then ready for bathing, face washing, dish washing, cleaning the floor or any of the myriad of chores pioneer women did every day.
Out side in the back yard, but not that far from the house, set the 3 legged cast iron kettle, pot, cauldron, or whatever they were calling that on any given day. This is where the real work went on. The other was for women's work, but do not be confused here and think women had chores and men had chores. Men had their chores, but when there was no one to help them, they became an extension of the women's chores. I do not know how they arrived at a 3 legged kettle as opposed to 4 legged, which it seems would be more sturdy, but there never was to my knowledge a 4 legged kettle. 3 legged is what it was. The job of the 3 legged kettle was endless. It could be used on Monday to scald a hog that was being butchered. Tuesday it would have a slow fire to render the fat of the hog into lard. Oh, and the pork rinds from that lard would be snacked on and used as flavoring all winter. Wednesday might find mother killing and cleaning chickens, ducks, turkeys or geese. Thursday she might decide to do the laundry so water was heated for that. Friday was usually cleaning day and we needed hot water for that. Those are the things that were every day use of the 3 legged cast iron but usually some one would come by and want to do something and sometimes all kinds of vegetables and stuff were thrown in and we had a feast.
And when the work of the kettle was done, mother was not. She sifted the ashes from the cleanest part of the wood that was burnt and stored them for her lye. Soap making was an art form back in those days. We had a metal bucket that set by the back door and any grease or oil went into it. When it was full, mother would heat it slowly and strain it into the "soap making bucket." When the time was right she would melt that nasty stuff. She then slowly dripped water through the clean, light gray ashes which made lye. This was quickly stirred into the melted, cleaned fat using a hammer handle. If all went well, the grease would begin to solidify and mother would pour it quickly into the soap box. If anything was off it would "set up" on the way to the box and the hammer handle would be embeded until we shaved off enough soap to free it. Worse yet was when mother was a little off and it did not set up. It just set there until she threw it out.
Ever smell lye soap? Back in the day it had a pungent odor and an off yellow color that mellowed with the ripening. After I married for what appears to be my last time, I had time on my hands, so I tried quilting, weaving and lots of other things. Finally I decided that I wanted to try soap making I was pretty sure I was not going to do the ashes part so I went off in search of lye. It was very easy to find. It was in Safeway, right down on the bottom shelf under the drano and that sort of stuff.
(I must deviate for just a paragraph here to tell you that buying lye in any store did not last long, because the yoyo's that were cooking meth and stuff like that began using it for their process. Safeway had already began to lock up all the cold and allergy stuff used in the process, so of course lye went by the wayside. I can still get it through a wholesale house, but I had to put up my first born child and 3 acres of ground for every pound I wanted.)
To make a long story short, I lined a box with a tea towel, just like momma used to do. I followed the directions to the letter and soon poured the conglomeration out into the box. When it was the right consistency, I cut it into squares with an old iron butcher knife. It said to wait and let it cure for 6 weeks. So I did. At that time I removed one of the square bars. I thought it looked a little rough, but what the hell. I started the shower and stepped in with my little bar. I would give it the supreme test for sensitivity on my face. Lord, my eye immediately began to burn like it was on fire. I was crushed! Not only was my labor in vain, but now I was going to be blind on top of it all. Luckily my husband was home that day and when I went crying to him he just laughed. Damn him! "Yeah, soap will do that." But he was right! Now I make soap that looks like this:
The trivet was a 3 point apparatus made of iron and usually was decorative, unless the man of the house was lazy. It set on the hearth, which is the floor of the fireplace. It usually had a hook that could pivot. The "tea kettle" was filled with water and hung near the fire. When hot water was needed the pot was swung over the fire and very quickly came to a boil. The water was then ready for bathing, face washing, dish washing, cleaning the floor or any of the myriad of chores pioneer women did every day.
Out side in the back yard, but not that far from the house, set the 3 legged cast iron kettle, pot, cauldron, or whatever they were calling that on any given day. This is where the real work went on. The other was for women's work, but do not be confused here and think women had chores and men had chores. Men had their chores, but when there was no one to help them, they became an extension of the women's chores. I do not know how they arrived at a 3 legged kettle as opposed to 4 legged, which it seems would be more sturdy, but there never was to my knowledge a 4 legged kettle. 3 legged is what it was. The job of the 3 legged kettle was endless. It could be used on Monday to scald a hog that was being butchered. Tuesday it would have a slow fire to render the fat of the hog into lard. Oh, and the pork rinds from that lard would be snacked on and used as flavoring all winter. Wednesday might find mother killing and cleaning chickens, ducks, turkeys or geese. Thursday she might decide to do the laundry so water was heated for that. Friday was usually cleaning day and we needed hot water for that. Those are the things that were every day use of the 3 legged cast iron but usually some one would come by and want to do something and sometimes all kinds of vegetables and stuff were thrown in and we had a feast.
And when the work of the kettle was done, mother was not. She sifted the ashes from the cleanest part of the wood that was burnt and stored them for her lye. Soap making was an art form back in those days. We had a metal bucket that set by the back door and any grease or oil went into it. When it was full, mother would heat it slowly and strain it into the "soap making bucket." When the time was right she would melt that nasty stuff. She then slowly dripped water through the clean, light gray ashes which made lye. This was quickly stirred into the melted, cleaned fat using a hammer handle. If all went well, the grease would begin to solidify and mother would pour it quickly into the soap box. If anything was off it would "set up" on the way to the box and the hammer handle would be embeded until we shaved off enough soap to free it. Worse yet was when mother was a little off and it did not set up. It just set there until she threw it out.
Ever smell lye soap? Back in the day it had a pungent odor and an off yellow color that mellowed with the ripening. After I married for what appears to be my last time, I had time on my hands, so I tried quilting, weaving and lots of other things. Finally I decided that I wanted to try soap making I was pretty sure I was not going to do the ashes part so I went off in search of lye. It was very easy to find. It was in Safeway, right down on the bottom shelf under the drano and that sort of stuff.
(I must deviate for just a paragraph here to tell you that buying lye in any store did not last long, because the yoyo's that were cooking meth and stuff like that began using it for their process. Safeway had already began to lock up all the cold and allergy stuff used in the process, so of course lye went by the wayside. I can still get it through a wholesale house, but I had to put up my first born child and 3 acres of ground for every pound I wanted.)
To make a long story short, I lined a box with a tea towel, just like momma used to do. I followed the directions to the letter and soon poured the conglomeration out into the box. When it was the right consistency, I cut it into squares with an old iron butcher knife. It said to wait and let it cure for 6 weeks. So I did. At that time I removed one of the square bars. I thought it looked a little rough, but what the hell. I started the shower and stepped in with my little bar. I would give it the supreme test for sensitivity on my face. Lord, my eye immediately began to burn like it was on fire. I was crushed! Not only was my labor in vain, but now I was going to be blind on top of it all. Luckily my husband was home that day and when I went crying to him he just laughed. Damn him! "Yeah, soap will do that." But he was right! Now I make soap that looks like this:
This is soap like momma used to make only instead of used up cooking grease, I use olive oil, lard, tallow, and stuff like that. It is smooth and creamy with tiny bubbles. I have found since I started making my own soap that my skin is not dry and that is because what you buy at the store is not soap, but beauty bar, bath bar and words like that. Soap does not appear on the lable. I used to sell this, but now I just make it and usually give it away.
Well, once more I got off target, but you will get used to that. But just look around you at things in your life that have a 3 point apparatus and you will know what I mean. If you are old, like me, you can visualize the bales of hay being lifted into the hay mow. Or if you ever blew the motor in your old Chevy you probably used a 3 pint lift to pull the old motor out and swing the new one in to place.
So, for now, from one old lady to those of you who still remember the old days, have a good one and remember,
You can not sprinkle showers of happiness on others without getting a few drops on yourself!
