Warmth is back as we expect mid 80s today

A kerosene barrel with a pump on it

I am guessing this is a picture from many years after I left home as the granary was bad when I was living at home but not really as bad as it looks here!

Saturday, January 14th, 1956

It was a cold snowy day (not like in the pictures!) and I was grateful that we did not have school as I was pretty sure Dad would have had us walk even though it was cold.  Some how he felt that the cold did not make any difference  as one could walk fast to keep warm.  I don't doubt his logic BUT still I did not like it!  Dave and I had some chores to do but I knew we would still have a lot of time to play games.  After the milking was finished and breakfast was done we needed to bring in kerosene for the living room stove.  We thought this may be the last time as Dad had actually worked on putting a large barrel on the north side of the house.  He still did not have the line through the wall into the living room but he said he would do that soon.  BUT for now it was bringing kerosene into the house.  We would pump a 5 gallon can full and then carry it into the house through the front door.  One had to be really careful because if you spilled any the house would smell kerosene all day.  SO with a 5 gallon can that had perhaps 4 gallons and 3 quarts we would carefully walk into the entry way, through the kitchen and then around to the back of the stove in the living room.  The stove did sit on some kind of pad so if one did a tiny spill as you were poreing a person could wipe it up.  Well to be honest we had NO carpet in the house so even if you spilled on the way through the kitchen it could be wiped up but it still would smell.  If we full of energy we would carry 2 cans in and that would last more than a day.  As I struggled into the house with the second can I thought "why does Dad not do that TODAY".  I knew the barrel on the back side of the house was 55 gallons so when that was ready to go and if we wanted to fill it with several trips the kerosene duty could be done on a Saturday and then maybe nothing for an entire week.  The kerosene was brought to the farm by Art, the oil  man.  We had perhaps 5 or more 55 gallon barrels in the granary.  they were in the main part of the granary as one went through the front door. (As you can see there was doorway with NO door).  The granary had several rooms in it.  By the time I left home I am sure there was not a dry room in it as the shingles went missing on much of it but in 1956 there were 7 rooms and a few were relatively dry.  To the right there were two rooms and the one in the back was where we had a tepee kind of metal hood and that is where we put the tiny chicks when they arrived by way of the mailman Fritz!  To the left there were two more rooms and they were not used for anything.  The back room had the least shingles so when it rained it poured.  As you entered the granary there was a large space with two smaller bins to the right and left.  Both of them were pretty much dry and the one on the right was where coal was shoveled into when Dad purchased that.  The space in the middle was where the kerosene barrels were.  That is where they were lined up with one pump.  When one barrel was empty we just took the pump out and  put it into a full barrel.  On this day I made up my mind that when Dad got that line into the house I was going to make sure that Dave and I did all the work in one day and then we would not have to carry kerosene for about a week.  I was happy about that as I did not like the job.  I tried to keep one pair of mittens just for that job as they always got to smelling kerosene in a big way.  In fact I usually kept them out in the granary so they would not smell up the entry which is where our separator was for the milk.  It was also where we hung all our coats and hats so to have smelly kerosene mittens there was not a good idea.
This day Dave took the first can into the house and I took the second.  That would keep us toasty warm until Sunday afternoon or evening.  Maybe by that time Dad would have the line from the north barrel into the stove but then I would not bet on it!
If I remember right it was sometime late January before Dad got his part of the work done.  But then, really, can I remember way back to 1956 and come up with details--your thoughts are as good as mine BUT I promise the facts in this story are true but the details may be another story!