Drum of Fire

We finally dipped below our already depressed clothes washing standards last weekend.  For six months, Ed and I have lived with sub-optimal clothes washing conditions.  Unbalanced, shaking, barely washing, and always producing clothes two seconds away from smelling like mildew... now a broken agitator.

What's an agitator?

This is how most of our house conversations are conducted.  Ed calls out 'it looks like the solenoid to engage the agitator is not working' over the noise of our old, beat-up washing machine, and I try to google these words while in the other room to come across as appliance-knowledgeable.  After a few short attempts to bring it back to life we decided out with the old and in with Ed's new washer that we hauled from Raleigh.  There was a brief conversation about how much the old one would be worth if we could fix it.... maybe $40 bucks?  I instantly thought that I would happily pay someone $40 bucks just to remove it.  Ed, possibly motivated by the challenge or the additional income, had already dismantled the back and started to work out the mechanics. 

Migas can fix anything.

Now, as a side note - while Ed was head-first into the washing machine,  I was busy online looking for an outdoor gas heater.  This purchase was important for two reasons: first, the weather here is absolutely beautiful, however, it becomes quite chilly at night; and two, we may be living outside in a tent for a couple months during our renovations and it might make life more bearable. 

Screening through Craigslist I found an ad that gave me pause...
          ... all of a sudden the washing machine and our need for a heat source coincided.
   
You see, to some of you this image below might look like a broken washing machine, as it did to both Ed and myself earlier:

       

However, (thanks to the guy from San Francisco selling his washer drum online) we now realized that this broken down washer was housing a diy fire pit!!  Hooray, Drum of Fire!

 We gutted that machine:

 Fire-pit gold!

Ed Miga - Drum Liberator!

This is the stand that Ed crafted to catch the ashes and keep it off the ground

 Now all we needed was some wood, some friends, and a grill.  Ed found 'free wood' on Craigslist and picked up a truckload.  I found a $50 grill on Craigslist that was barely operational.  Just when you think life is fairy-tale quality Ed uttered the word 'termites'.  Ah yes, we had carried a truckload of termite infested wood to our newly exterminated home.

Just in case you forgot.

We were desperate:  Ed trying light the termite wood in our drum of fire, meanwhile, I stayed back in an attempt tot kill the termites that had escaped the wood with an axe (sharp side, not the flat side...sadly inefficient).

 Needless to say we let the fire burn all night until every termite had reached 'well-done'.

 And fortunately, that gave us time to use our new (to us) grill and celebrate the recent marriage of two of our friends.

Always keeping the fire extinguisher close at hand,

Karen & Ed