Wanted - Chief Clock Winder on no pay

Old houses and old things require time.  This was a stark reminder as the cold wind whipped up the leaves from under the back door to gather them up in the hallway.  Autumn is here and it suddenly got cold.  This means fires to keep warm.  We do have electric wall heaters but they are quite expensive to run and you can't really whack a modern dual air conditioning unit into the wall of an 140 year old Victorian homestead.  Well you can...but I personally wouldn't.  So without wanting an electricity bill that requires the both of us to sell a kidney or two, we use the wood fire to stay warm.  And if you have wood heaters, you know they take time, kindling, and constant attention.  It means you all congregate in the one living room.  And it's a popular spot in front of the fire, where we try to accommodate drying clothes, rising bread dough, two cats, a dog and us.  We're a close family in winter.  The other labour of love would have to be our clock.  We toyed with the idea of getting a grandfather clock as I've always loved their imposing presence in a room.  It reminds you that you are in fact, just taking up time.  We decided on something more manageable and less likely to wake us up on the hour every hour, so we adopted an Ansonia kitchen clock (pictured).  It chimes on the hour and once on the half.  And it don't come with batteries.  Which means that someone needs to wind both the clock and chimes at least once a week or else silence.  The job of clock winding also requires a clock reset which means you must go through the clock cycle to pick up the correct chimes.  She's a bit fiddly and doesn't like to be forced backwards.  I suspect she detests Daylight Savings/Summertime as I do because it just throws everything out of sync.  Old houses used to employ people to wind clocks and attend to wood fires.  That would be perfect (dream on sister) but not likely and our house isn't exactly a castle and I possess no crown jewels to pay someone.  So while a cold westerly reminds us that winter is coming, we'll chop wood and put on extra clothing - and eat chocolate as well.  Happy Easter if celebrating.