I finally learned how to light  up the old Home Comfort cook stove in the cabin so that I could do dishes in the dark of evening. The stove heated the water for the dishes with coal and wood and the candles warmed my heart as I could see to get the dishes clean. Copyright Corawithacamera 2014 January 14. May this warm you heart as you see it.

This Home Comfort cook stove still has the pipe holes where a water heating tank used to be attached to the left side of the stove. I just used the big pots and wash pans that I left behind the stove for the photo to heat water. The pot on the right is on the cooling rack that is attached to the right side of the stove.

The oven self cleans when the stove gets to about seven hundred degrees with a good hot fire. The ashes of spilled items are easily swept out to clean after that if they do not just disintegrate with the heat.

The heavy cast iron of the stove warms up, holds the heat and makes the whole kitchen area cozy warm even when storms are brewing outside like they were on the evening this photo was taken. It was a down pour of rain that flooded the road so bad half of it washed out and I could not make it out to join my husband the next day.

There are a variety of temperatures to be found on the top of this kind of cook stove. The hottest spot is in the middle of the left side where the flames turn to go up the chimney. If the damper is pulled toward the front, the flames and heat go to the right circling the oven within the cast iron frame. The smoke and heat circle around the oven and go up behind the damper at the back of the oven when the damper is shut.

My husband and his roommate saw a stove like this at an abandoned cabin and tried to start a fire in the oven of the stove. This of course does not work well as the smoke has no place to go then but out the oven door and up into your face.


The cabin is usually in a very dry area. You can see the effects of the water from recent rains playing with the sand on the road.

The lush greenery around the cabin was a joy to my eyes as I drove up in August after the dry summer a few rains had finally come. I could see that I had been slack about pulling tumble weeds.

White yarrow was in bloom to the right near the bottom of the stairs. The morning glories had not yet climbed much higher than the weeds around the middle post of the cabin.

 

 I had just planned to gather a few things and go to meet my husband for the evening where he was working.

 

The violets, Johnny jump ups and pansies were playing around the base of the morning glories and the strawberry leaves looked so lush there must be a strawberry coming soon.

 

I usually tried to keep the grass in front of the wicker seat so that it looked mowed by just pulling the weeds but they had gotten away from me this summer. Maybe I could pull just a few more today.

 

 

Double rose colored Holly Hocks that friends Mary and Patty had given me were blooming at last after several years of watering in hopes of blooms. I realize the photo is blurred but as it turns out it is the best one I have.

 

The peach tree that is growing with the Holly Hocks shows in this photo that turns out to be the only other one I have of the beautiful Holly Hocks. My cousins took some seeds to Indiana. Hope they are blooming there now.

 

I walked around the back of the cabin to the east side and tried to capture the feeling of how special it was to be here at the cabin my husband, friends and family had built. It started with logs that were given to help clear them from the land of Sally Beck near Monument, Colorado. Friends built the shed that became our living room when we unexpectedly found that it was going to be the only place that we had to call home.

 

A summer thunder shower was brewing.

The color of the sky was changing fast.

I went inside where the Simpich elves greeted me.

  I tried to get a more natural light photo of them so I could share with you how happy they seemed to be in the cabin.

 This one greeted me as if to say, " bout time you came home!

The white yarrow that had grown naturally here was blooming away as if it had been well watered in the dusty arid area.

 

 

 

The trail into the cabin was dry even though signs of some rain showed in the tires ruts and the growth of tumble weeds along the road my husband made  by driving on it and by helping it out now and then with our old Ford tractor. These tumble weeds along the side of the freshly cut trail (about 2002) remind me that I think the Russians have gotten undo credit for carrying these weeds into the United States. I think these seeds are buried in the ground up to twenty feet down. Where ever we dig they grow. The Russians never came here and the ground was undisturbed for the most part until we started driving here to raise cattle and live.

Ahh yes a little sign of water from recent rain. That would mean there might be enough gamma grass for the cattle to eat.

 I love getting to see the two trees that together with another formed the Lazy Tree Grove. They were the only tall cottonwood trees for miles around.

Oh yes a little water was gathered behind the earth dam that protected the spring water. It was enough to water the cattle.

 So good to see cattle on this land again.

 I love those two trees and the great horned owls that had grown there many times over the years. Friends tried to help us fence it in for a camping area and to protect some thirty young trees that are trying to grow in the area. The cattle have gotten in and eaten the young trees and the fence is hardly visible.

Maybe someday it will be a park where many people can come and enjoy the beauty I have seen here. The Indians camped here around 1860's. A young soldiers military button was found here. I have heard that a sheep herder had a camp here. The story of the Elephant that grazed next door can even be found on the internet. It was the Norris family that had the elephant on the adjacent land.

 

 The cattle seem quite content with the short grass that is growing. They are grazing in the midday though so they are  still looking for more grass to eat.

 

 

 

 

This photo of the funny bee like bug called a cow killer by some shows how dry the land was in between the rains.

The road in front of the cabin shows that some rain has come to this place in the last few days.

How lush and green the tumbleweeds look.

The morning glories are just barely taller than the tumble weeds.

 

 Wonder what tales this old wagon wheel could tell us about its  travels to this place. The woman that fence in part of this ranch put a rag on a wagon wheel so that she could tell how to place the fence post evenly. She was only a few feet off from modern survey on her land lines.

I have tried and tried to grow flowers in these large pots by the arched gate that my husband lovingly made for me. I almost got the morning glories to grow up to the top of it. I found that my cat, Miss Kitty was scratching the post and taking down the morning glories down with her catching.

I call these wild morning glories. They are actually very pink in natural light. They have another name that I cannot remember at the moment.

 The cattle trough was full of water. The Cat tails will try to fill up the water tank just like Kenny Burke told me they would if I do not get them pulled up.

 The stick weed or Evening Star as I call them were busting open with beauty.

 I thought I might do a few dishes. I lit the candles hoping I could enjoy them one more time as I did the dishes. The sign on the Home Comfort stove caught my eye. Wrought Iron Range Co of St Louis is apparently where the old black stove was made.

This photo shows a little more of the sign.

The lighting also shows up more of the sign but the natural  light in the other photos is so cozy.

Table looks inviting with the old hobnail white lamp from the Cripple Creek hardware store. We purchased it when we were first married over 40 years ago.

 

 The candles in the window are only lit when I can be there with them. They are a combination of patio candles and LED lights. Can you tell which is which.

The candles on the curtains are only lit