Cast iron stove mystery July 28 & 29 2012

Came up by myself again this weekend - as the kids had sport and other plans and J was busy with work

Now, rather than first describe what I did - I have a question

What is this??

It might be a bit hard to make out - but the above photo is a close up of the backboard of the wood fired stove in the kitchen.  And what I want to know is - what is the purpose of  the handle and plate like piece of metal that can be drawn out of the back cast iron wall??

Above are 2 x photos of the plate taken out of the back wall

There appear to be 2 of these - one either side of the range

What's behind this cast iron wall?  Does it connect to the chimney?  Is it something to do with the flue?  If anyone knows please advise - as it is a complete mystery to me

Justin's Architecture Professor uncle had said that he thought that the stove was probably not the original one for there - and that perhaps it had heated water before hand - as there appear to be panels in the cast iron range.  But I couldn't get anything else to move.
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Anyway, I drove there in Mum's car - as mine had unfortunately been side-swiped by a semi trailer on the Monash a few days prior.

Given that it's Winter I wanted to prune the large rose in the "south lawn".   I also had to rid of it that dratted bridal creeper weed

Job done!

Job #2 was to empty out the cellar - as quite a bit more water had seeped back in ( from a couple of weeks ago when the hot water service burst - and we lost 10s of 1000s of litres of water)

not quite covering my boots

It took quite a few trips up and down the stairs - 2 full buckets at a time to empty it out

At least it didn't smell!


After all this, I didn't feel like going out tonight - and Grant was always raving about James' steaks - so I decided to buy myself a steak for dinner.  A t-bone was recommended.  I also picked some spinach and mushrooms from the garden - and cooked them all up on the wood fired stove (with jacket potatoes in the ashes).

I must say that it took quite a while  - but it was worth it

Also made a nice fire in my room - on the new grate - which worked a treat

I had also brought up another grate, some fire irons and fire dogs for the dining room

A hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs on Sunday meant that I didn't need much lunch - and prepared me for a day of digging up 100s of jonquil bulbs, and then re-planting them else where

Took ages - but I had learned my lesson - and was wearing gardening gloves - after the huge blister I got on my palm last year when I lifted and replanted the iris bulbs

I also had to empty out the cellar a little more -as more had seeped in over night.  It really is sodden outside , Gordon had said that we'd got 60 or 70 points of rain during the week. It certainly made it easier to dig up the bulbs though

Anyway, despite the cold weather - Spring is on the way. A few almond trees were in bloom

Some jonquils were also flowering

And I found some snow drops

Lastly, I went and had a coffee at Bubbletoes and had a good chat with Kerry & Tanya  - who told me that there were plans to possibly have a jazz, wine and cheese festival weekend at Inglewood to draw in the tourists.  I'd be in on that!