Women's work (never done)

My morning: Not typical, but not so unusual either.

As I was getting out of bed he said, "make me a pot of coffee, wouldja?"

A bit surprised he planned to get up this early (8:15) I said okay. He's the night owl, so he's rarely up before ten. I'm the early bird.

On the way into the kitchen I noticed the fire (in the woodstove, that's in the "stoveroom", where my desk also sits) had gone out overnight. Started his pot of coffee, made a quick trip into the bathroom, scraped ashes out of the woodstove, took them outside (I'm in my housecoat & my laceless steel toed boots) to dump in the flowerbeds. Got the empty pizza box from the kitchen & filled it from the papertrash, closed & folded it and put it in the stove, piled on some bark from the back porch and lit it.

Went out to the side of the house (in the new fallen snow) and picked up a couple sticks of smaller split firewood (there's a wheelbarrow of larger split on the porch by the back door) put the sticks and a wax "firestarter" block on the bark that's burning down nicely, got my mug & filled it from the cold teapot on the woodstove (the teapot that would have been full of hot tea had the fire not gone out), put it in the microwave, filled the waterpitcher at the kitchen sink and from it filled the teapot and both "evaporator" pots on the woodstove. Started filling the sink to wash dishes.

Had noticed while getting the sticks of smaller split that except for a narrow sliver of suet there's no bird food out back. So now I filled the two bird feeders and the finch sock, scattered around on the ground what was left in the mixed seed bucket and the thistle seed bucket, scattered some cracked corn for the turkeys, took a few more sticks of smaller split in and put them in the woodstove.

Into the bedroom to get my waterglass & trash from last night, told him, "I've made a pot of coffee, started a fire & fed the birds." He said, "gawd, what time did you get up?" I said, "It's 8:45, so about half an hour ago."

Back to the kitchen, fed the cats (split one small can on six plates), gave the dog a biscuit. Popped an english muffin into the toaster, washed the dishes. Got my tea out of the microwave, doctored it up for drinking, got another "family sized" teabag out of the cabinet, put it in the teapot on the woodstove, checked the fire.

Got the pot of chicken broth out of the fridge (I'd simmered some chicken legs yesterday, for soup today), scraped the congealed fat off the top onto a paper plate for the birds, put the pot on the kitchenstove on medium, added some minced turnip & minced celery from the freezer, got the chicken (from whence came the broth) out of the fridge, cut it into small pieces, into the pot of broth/celery/turnip. Will add noodles later.

Got my english muffin out of the toaster, buttered it, carried it and the tea to my desk.

Back into the kitchen, got the remaining three cakes of suet out of the freezer, carried them and the chicken fat to the front porch for the birds. Put plate of congealed (broth) fat on the porch, filled both front porch suet feeders. Noted both finch socks are empty. Got compost bowl from kitchen and dumped it out back at the compost. Took the remaining suet cake out back and replaced the sliver of suet I'd noticed earlier with a full cake. Took the sliver to join another feeder that had only a sliver also. Suet needs to go on the shopping list, as does dishsoap.

Sat down to write all this down. Forgot half of it.

Got up to brush my teeth, opened curtains in bathroom, living room, bedroom, kitchen; straightened bathroom, folded blankets & straightened tables in living room. Finished washing dishes (the bowl the chicken had been in, the spatula I'd scraped the broth with). Noticed I could stand to do a load of laundry, the litter boxes need cleaning, stoveroom needs vacuuming. There's a hamper of sheets & towels & such that still needs to be put away.

I could stand a shower, or better yet a long hot soak in the tub. Maybe later.

Turned the chicken soup-to-be down to simmer. Came back to the computer. Ate my muffin, drank my tea. Finished writing this. It's 10AM.