Sloss Furnace

   I have been looking up historical areas around Birmingham recently and would like to do as much possible now while we do not have to work around job schedules. I'm looking forward to going to Tannehill at the end of March when the living history volunteers are there. And tubing down the Little Cahaba River in the summer! And I really, really want to go to Stone Mountain's Antebellum Plantation whenever we visit/ stay with Jessica in Atlanta. Hopefully next month? ;)

   Michael came here for a middle school field trip. I wasn't too excited about going through this long, wet, super dark tunnel. He used the flashlight app on his iPhone, but it didn't help me much. He was holding it up against the walls to be sure he didn't hit his head on random pipes jutting out, but then I kept stepping into puddles.. Boo hoo.. At least we didn't have to eat mud for dinner! We actually went to his parents' house for dinner. They made yummy bourbon & brown sugar seasoned chicken, with corn, green beans, peas and baby rolls.

   Sloss Furnaces, National Landmark of Birmingham, became a "museum" in 1983 and consists of two 400-ton blast furnaces and forty other buildings. The oldest building on the site is the steam driven "blowing engine" which dates back to 1900. The boilers were installed in 1906 and the furnace closed down in 1970. There were some big metal plaques with information, one which stated that a lot of the workers lived in constant danger from all of the gas inhalation. One guy (Theophilus Calvin Jowers) even fell into the furnace while installing a bell!!

   It was about 42 degrees today? We thought about going to one of the malls instead, but I wanted to come here because it's much more interesting. And then I could cross it off my fun "Visit Bama" list. It was cold, but after two leg layers, and five body layers, two scarves and one fuzzy hat, it wasn't that bad. And even better when it wasn't windy. My hands did stay pretty cold though since I didn't bring gloves to make taking all the pictures easier, but I believe it was well worth it. And now that my hands are back to an inside cozy 74 degrees, I almost forgot how cold they were before!