Dec 1st Monday. Oliver left again this morning
for Brown University. Jane was able to do the
housework this morning & Mary has washed
I have been sewing with Mother Gave the
furnace up to Ann this morning It has been
so windy that we could not dry our clothes
Jane has starched the fine clothes to have
them ready to Iron tomorrow Cold room all day
It’s not surprising that Evelina got Sarah Witherell’s servant, young Ann Orel, to start the coal furnace this morning, for it was a chore she disliked and the weather was so cold that there was no fooling around with getting heat into the house. Old Oliver reported that “this was a fair day wind verry high from the north west + cold – a verry disagreeable day to be out in – there was an anchor frost this morning”
Anchor frost is a term for “a frost which causes ice to form along the bed of a running stream […] An anchor–frost can only occur when the temperature of the running water and the bed over which it flows is below freezing point. When this is the case, the rapidity of the stream is sometimes sufficient to prevent the swifter upper current congealing, while the lower current, which moves more slowly on account of the friction, becomes frozen to the bed.” * Old Oliver knew all about running water and was probably not happy to see anchor ice forming in the Queset.
*Image of anchor ice, courtesy of The Aspen Times
** Arthur Benoni Evans, Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, Volume 11, English Dialect Society, 1881.
evelinaames 