My fireplace Makes the house colder when there has been a fire, and it smokes, so I don't use it except to burn candles in it. Your house sounds like an adventure, Andrea. That attic access sounds treacherous - are there pull-down steps in it, or do you prop a ladder? There is a category I see in the medical examiner's public page called "death from short fall." Please don't have your ME add a "plummeted in own house" category.

Called my radio organic gardening guru this morning; the conversation is green tomatoes. I've set mine out to ripen, and if I get a good recipe for making green tomato relish before these ripen, then I'll use it. The friend who came to dinner last night brought his 3-tiered steam juicer so the frozen whole fruits will be juiced and sauced soon.

SRS