It’s not quite winter but nights are getting colder and falling asleep is more difficult because the sheets are icy when I first get into bed. I have tried an electric blanket and electric mattress pad but they were too hot. I have tried different nightwear but these were too cold. I have been searching for the ‘just right’ solution and finally found one…a bed warmer. No, I am not talking about my husband. He’s cold too. I am talking about an actual bed warmer.
I got the idea from something my dad said long ago. He slept on the unheated second floor of an old farm house. Heat from the wood burning stove on the main level was supposed to rise up through the second level floor grates (which he liked to remove and jump through). Well, at least that was the premise. Dad said he froze his tush off. Dad fondly recalled his mom heating bricks and placing them under his covers before he went to bed. The warmth from those bricks made bedtime possible.
Flash forward 70 years. While we have heated homes and our discomfort is not comparable, I am freezing my tush off when I first get into bed. I thought about heating bricks and then remembered we are in the 21st century, surely we can update the brick solution. I came across a website with instructions for making a ‘new age’ bed warmer. This I had to try.
The first thing I needed to do was purchase a 50 pound bag of feed corn. Yes, both statements are correct. 50 pounds. Feed corn. This past Saturday I asked my husband to go with me to the local Farm and Fleet. I am strong, but if I don’t have to lift a 50 pound bag on my own, I don’t. Our conversation went like this…
Me: “Will you run some errands with me this morning?”
Husband: “Where are you going?”
Me: “Farm and Fleet”
Husband: “Why are you going there?”
Me: “I need to buy some feed corn…”
Husband: “What?!?”
Me: “for the bed warmers.”
Husband: “Come again?”
Me: “I need the corn for the bed warmers I am making so we won’t be cold at night.”
Husband: “That doesn’t…”
Me interrupting: “You can’t stop me. You can’t change my mind. So are you coming or not?”
Now that is the benefit of being married 31 years. He had only two choices, to come with me or stay home. He is the love of my life and he stopped questioning me and actually drove the car. I didn’t tell him we had to purchase a 50 pound bag until we were beyond the point of no return in our journey. I am happy to say I was able to quickly distract him with other topics.
It turns out the most difficult part of this project was purchasing the feed corn. The rest was easy. I found directions for making my bed warmer at make-it-do.com. I used scrap fabric from my pile at home and the actual sewing took about 15 minutes.
Last night we tried it out. It was wonderful. We were warm and snuggly with the side benefit of our bedroom smelling like popcorn. Evidently I have enough feed corn to make 17 to 25 bed warmers. Guess what everyone on my list is getting this Christmas.
Prairie Wisdom 