This week’s weather has sure been good for chunking the fire and staying close to the woodstove. For the last two mornings the temperature has been down in the teens. I know many parts of the US have been way colder than that.
The day after our short lived snow we had another skiff of snow. There wasn’t near as much as the first small one. Instead of the sun melting it the wind just blew it hither and yon.
I believe next week’s forecast is for weather that’s more typical for this time of the year.
chunk
B verb
1 (also chunk up) To stoke or stir (a fire), feed with wood.
1939 Hall Coll. Cataloochee NC My brother, he was chunking the fire that day, blowed the cap off it. (Jim Sutton) 1941 Justus Kettle Creek 167 Matt got up to chunk the fire. c1945 Haun Hawk’s Done 249 I chunked up the fire and put another piece of wood on. 1963 Edwards Gravel 92 If you ain’t, I’ll chunk up the far a bit and we’ll roast a tater here in the ashes and eat it before we go to be, uh? 1989 Hannah Reflections 4 The boys chunked up the fire to thaw out his feet.
2 To throw, toss.
1974 Fink Bits Mt Speech 4 Chunk me the ball. 1992 David Jack Tales 74 All night long there would be old boys whistling from the yard, chunking little rocks on top of the house, even peeking in the windows, trying to get that girl to come out of the house so they could court her for a little while.
—Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
Last night’s video: Family History and Stories from Opal Corn Myers 7.
Tipper
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Tipper, did you ever get around to putting the boxwood leaves on top of the wood heater. Brother Harold reminded me that you have to take a needle and poke a hole in one end and then lay them belly up. Shiny side down.
Ed-I haven’t but I’m going to try and remember to do it 🙂
I haven’t seen this mentioned in the other comments, how many remember seeing the stove pipes and sometimes even the side of those coal/wood heaters glowing red in those old cold homes? You would sit by the heater and roast one side while your other side would be cold.
Jackie, I liked your comment about Cloudy McClain
My dad’s sister Aunt Edna had 10 kids and one night me and my sister spent the night. Aunt Edna put quilts and coats on top of us. You could see light in the cracks of the walls. We actually lived in that same house years before. Anyway they had a wood stove in the living room with very sparce furniture. Whenever we woke up, there was light snow on our covers, but that stove was as red as Santa’s suit. When she hollowered breakfast, it was like a stampede. She only had a couple of chairs and a long plank to sit on. What I do remember about Aunt Edna was her telling me that her favorite thing was washing clothes (or the lack of them). She never used anything but Tide and rainwater. He laundry was as white as any I ever saw. God bless.
I grew up in a house heated by coal fires in fireplaces. We rarely lit a fire in the living room except on special occasions like holidays and for expected company. Mostly the fire was in the dining room where we ate supper. My Pa would build the fire up before going to bed (usually about 9:30). We put a screen in front of the fireplace if we weren’t up and active.
I delivered morning newspapers. I’d stir the fire and add coal (or kindle a new fire) before I left the house so Pa would have a warm room and fire when he got up. We called it stoking but did refer to chunks of coal that were larger than normal.
When I was really little growing up in NE Illinois, the first house Daddy bought he actually put the furnace in his self and I remember him stoking the furnace. When we would go to my Grandparents down in NE MS, they had fireplaces at the old place they stoked wood but when they bought a house near town they burned coal in the fireplaces and I remember them poking the coal with a long black iron poker that sort of curled at the end. I enjoyed watching the flames dance and hot embers flickering like fireflies as they went up the chimney. Added to that, I felt the warmth of the fire and the love of my family as they told stories which brought smiles and laughter too.
We have had quite a few snow storms here and really cold temps but they say starting today it is going to be warming up. Maybe Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday it will be in the 50’s. Having grown up in colder and snowier areas than here, it was o.k., when I was young, but now you can have it:) I’m looking forward to a little warmer weather. Tipper, years ago, when the girls were teens I think, you had a beautiful snow and you all went for a walk up in the woods and took us along. I remember it looked beautiful and you came across some tracks that Matt looked at and said it was a “painter” and later you came across another point where he thought it had followed you. I think I stumbled across your post maybe 2008 or 2009 and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.
Dee your mention of feeling the love of family reminded me of my childhood and me and Daddy laying in the floor in front of our fireplace and sometimes eating parched/roasted peanuts and throwing the hulls in the fire. Daddy would rather lay in the floor than sit in a chair. Mother and my sister would be sitting in chairs close by. Nearly every night while all of us was around the fireplace, Mother would read to us from her Bible and we would all pray before going to bed. This reminds me of Willie Nelson’s song “The Family Bible” and the words “how much better this world would be if more mothers would read to their family from the Bible.” That might not be the exact words. I said nearly every night, we would be at church on Sunday and Wednesday night. We would be at home on Saturday night getting cleaned up and ready for church on Sunday.
Sounds a lot like my childhood. Church was everything. Dad’s Bible was on the arm of his chair as he studied his Sunday School lesson. Mom always saw things were ready for all of us 10 ready for Sunday and Dad’s one pair of Sunday shoes polished because he was a Deacon in that little country church.
I grew up in a little house my dad and his brothers built of pine logs from our farm in the 1930’s. As it aged and the logs dried (he didn’t know they needed drying before building), cracks developed and we had natural air conditioning. The wood cook stove in the kitchen was replaced by a wood heater in the early 50’s when electricity was available. I was a baby and most of my siblings were teens. I remember back logs so big Daddy could barely carry them to the living room fireplace. He often sat up all night to keep the fires burning in extreme cold. On normal nights we banked the fire by covering it with ashes in hopes there would be coals to start the next morning fire. When I think of chunking the fire I think it means putting a chunk of wood on the fire. I miss having a wood fire now but am not able to cut nor carry the wood. A fire requires extreme care. A cousin recently caught her dress on fire and spent several weeks in the hospital but is doing much better. Years of experience doesn’t prevent accidents.
As for Matt doing some things other men might not consider their responsibility, I’m impressed that he seems to do whatever needs to be done. I think it should be that way. I’m proud to say both my sons are like that too. Why not? I believe all family members should do anything they can to help with what needs to be done.
It was 4 degrees when we got up and Hubby has been chunking our fire twice a day all winter. It’s such a nice, warm and cozy heat. I grew up with wood heat and hubby grew up with a coal furnace. So we have been chunking fires forever. There was a pot-bellied coal stove in the elementary school I attended. The principal kept that fire stoked all day. We had a big coal furnace in our junior/high school when we attended. It was always toasty inside all winter. Now they have a gas furnace and it’s not very warm in the winter. I know…I worked there many years. I wrote this poem about a pot-bellied stove in the 9th grade, as part of an English assignment. It seems appropriate to share this morning:
There’s nothing better than an old coal stove,
To thaw your hands and warm your toes,
And help that red, raw, frostbitten nose,
On winters’ snowy days.
There’s nothing better than an old coal stove,
To sit all around on a cold, cold night,
And tell long tales while outside the moonlight,
Is casting a shadowy haze.
I wish we had a woodstove we could sit by and enjoy chunking the fire. We got down to 19 degrees last night and still have some snow and ice on the ground, but the sun is shining bright, and it is melting. Next week they are calling for weather in the 60’s and Wednesday may reach 70. Maybe we are on our way to spring. I sure hope so!!
My favorite YouTube weatherman warns that my area will experience more snow toward the end of next week. My firewood pile is getting dangerously low from chunking the fire for months, and I need some light therapy other than the bright orange flames I see through the doors of my wood stove.
Tipper and all. All my life our heat came from a coal furnace. Morning and night my son comes down to chuck or stoke the furnace for me, since I am not allowed to go down the cellar steps anymore. (family orders)
It is brutally cold in NW Alabama. It was 70F this past Sunday and 14F with a windchill factor of 2F yesterday morning. No need to complain, it is just “Alabama Weather”. Yes, we have been chunking the fires here too. I have come from a long line of “chunkers” who have used that word since I can remember. When I was young, “chicken houses” were heated with upright cast iron heaters. Most people burned coal, but some burned wood in them to warm the houses/birds. We used these types of heaters on our farm. My daddy would get up during cold nights and carry a long iron rod with a hook on one end and handle on the other. Using this “poker” he’d chunk the fires. Nowadays, most poultry farms use propane burned in a suspended heater called a brooder from the ceiling via cables and pulleys to lower and raise them accordingly. They looked like a flying saucer and would really put out the heat. I mention this because we had lady (one of my bonus grannies) who helped us with the chickens. She was pure Appalachian and looked/spoke like a woman straight out of the original Foxfire Book. For some reason or another I’d get a kick our her calling the brooders “hovers” (pronounced huv-ers”. Thanks for jogging my memory. LOL
Have a great weekend and God Bless.
In my world today as a teacher chunking has a whole new meaning. In that realm it refers to blocking off pieces of a reading assignment into small sections so students aren’t overwhelmed with the entire piece. I’m sure Paul knows that definition too.
Yes, chunking the fire and is a familiar expression. We almost always dropped the “g”. We didn’t often use that verb for throwing objects like rocks or baseballs. I’m not sure why. My mom had an expression for a person in motion, doing house cleaning, for example. She’d say, “That Carolyn has been junin’ around all morning, dustin’ and moppin’ and ironin’. Maybe “juning” was in reference to June bug activity, I don’t know.
My mom also used the term “junin’ around” when referencing being busy. Now I have a five year old granddaughter named June, and we have called her June Bug since the day she and her twin sister arrived! Blessed, we are!
My grandparents lived an Appalachian lifestyle on their farm just 30 miles from downtown Atlanta. When I was a child in the 50’s and 60’s, there was a fireplace in the kitchen where Grandmother cooked before she had a wood-burning stove; a fireplace in the front room (den, living room or family room); and a fireplace in one of the two bedrooms. Granddaddy built the fireplace and chimney in 1952, out or rock most likely from the farm land. I loved to sleep in that room in the winter when frost covered the interior slat walls, nestled into the feather ticking weighted down with hand stitched quilts, surrounded by the love of my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Simpler times….
I’ve not heard chunking the wood before. I’ve heard and used stoking the wood, which apparently means the same as chunking the wood. If the fire just needed stirred up, we would say poke the fire. We used a poker to get the wood flaming again.
It’s been cold here too in the low teens. We just got a scuff of snow, which melted as soon as the sun came out. It was pretty watching the snow fall when it was really coming down on Thursday morning. It’s going to be Spring weather this coming week they say, but we’ll see. I think I’m over winter and ready for Spring!
I am flying to Myrtle Beach today. I am looking forward to getting away from the snow! I know the temperatures are colder than usual, but there will be no snow on the ground!!! I haven’t seen my lawn since late November. ☮️
Living in Central Florida, we have had a couple of “cold” days this week (it was in the 60s). That may sound crazy but due to our humidity it is a wet cold. I guess I have just turned into a cold wimp over the 30 years I have live here .
We were just introduced to ur channels by a friend this past month. We have watched you everyday through this southwest Missouri cold snap!!!
Although we have lived here our whole life the language is what we grew up hearing!!
Which makes me sure our ancestors migrated from ur area!!
We love the old music and feel like we have known ur dad!!!
We are Kathy Larry Coale on Facebook
Kathy and Larry, thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoy what we do 🙂
I have been watching your show for about one month and really enjoy it. I love the way the program features your various recipes and especially the way it ends with Matthew making up a plate and showing it!! I wish I was there to help you eat all that food! It looks like Matt helps with the cleanup after dinner. Is this true? You have taught him well!
Shirley, he is a good hand to help 🙂 Thank you!!
It was 49 here in Southern California as I logged on this morning. That’s cold for us and that wood stove looks inviting. I believe it’s supposed to get into the 70s today. I’d prefer the 60s but we have to take what the good Lord gives us. Could be worse.
Hello Tipper! I feel as if I know you! My husband and I started watching your channel quite some time ago. We saw your sweet girls grow up and now there are grandbabies! God is good! I want to let you know how much I signed up for your newsletter yesterday and received my first one this morning. Thank you and may God bless you and your family.
Hilda, thank you! We are so glad you enjoy what we do 🙂
I hear you and I stand with you in total support of chunking the fire! I bet it’s toasty and comfortable at your home! I’m glad you got some snow, but I sure wish you could get away for a real snow adventure at a ski lodge or cabin for a few days just to walk in deep snow. I’m selling looks clean white snow at 1.99$ per pound-100 pound minimum for delivery…also I have long icicles at 3.00$ a “pop” or 10 for 20$ -delicious cooling treat or untraceable melting weapon…
it has been miserably cold here in OK so am quite ready for warmer temps to come….and ready to plant a few seeds
enjoyed last night’s reading….I hope you find time to read to the boys even now at their young age—-I have even heard that it is good to give babies soft Bibles or if not complete Bibles just small amount of it in maybe a cloth form so they can hold it and chew on it…there is even people who teach Sunday School to newborns and older babies—just short little lessons and the teachers even get responses from infants, all of that to say even reading the Bible to the boys at this age has been proven to be positive. I went down a rabbit hole there didnt I lol Sorry–but I do know the boys will be so glad you are their grandma and enjoy you reading to them
Been chunking the fire and staying close to the wood stove way too much the past week wood pile is going down pretty quick, ready for some blue skies and warmer weather.
The weather has also been cold here this week. I did get a very brief skiff of snow on Thursday. Yesterday morning it was 18 degrees and this morning it is in the low 20’s. I saw a forecast for spring in my area yesterday by one of our local weathermen, he predicted above average temperatures and below average rainfall. He missed his winter forecast, it has been a lot colder than he predicted back in the fall of last year.
I sure wish I had a wood heater to sit by, but I would not be able to cut the wood for it. It bothers me when I see so many good oak trees blown over after Helene going to waste. I think of the good firewood they would make. Tipper, what do you do with the ashes? In the past around here, it was common to scatter them on the garden spots.
Randy, we put them on the garden too 🙂
Usually the weather forecasters get things pretty close for the next two to three days. Beyond that it seemed to be based on what’s normal for that time of year. Many years ago Clyde McClain on the Charlotte, NC station forecast ‘Partly cloudy’ for the next day. The next morning his friend called him and asked if he would come help shovel the six inches of ‘partly cloudy’ off his driveway. He was known as Cloudy McClain for the rest of his career.