Whilst trying to move an incredibly heavy cherry wood wardrobe and wash stand we made a few discoveries.
We needed to move the wardrobe to strip wallpaper and lift lino from the floors. The wardrobe unfortunately weighed the best part of 50 stone. Every panel was made at least 1 inch thick including the back panel and the floors of the drawers.
Nowadays, if a cabinet maker was to make a wardrobe, they would not use so much quality wood. One drawer weighs several stone and if it were to fall on your foot it would break several toes.
In one of the drawers was a 5 franc coin from 1958 and a newspaper from Tues, March 14 1939. In the top right corner is the headline “Hitler concentre des troupes a la frontere Tchécoslovaque“. This translates to “Hitler concentrates troops at the Czechoslovakian border“.
World War 2 broke out on September 1st 1939.
83 years on, Putins troops were crossing the Ukrainian border and heading towards Kyiv. Many people saying this could lead to WW3.
We only had to move the wardrobe 18 inches, yet it took two of us 40 minutes and a plank as leverage to do so. In the process I further aggravated my frozen shoulder and crunched my back.
Just to prove that whatever happens in life, nature always finds a way of coping and recovering. We found something less substantial hibernating in a wash stand. Currently there are holes in the chimney, the wall and around there are broken windows so there are no shortages for places for animals and birds to get in.
Nesting inside the wash stand was a long thin white bellied rodent. We found a new home for this, inside the barn.