Get your Clawfoot Tub here…

 What is a bath tub? To make things simple let me just state that it is a container. It would contain its contents. In most homes, it is used to wash yourself. Most homes have a tub with a shower spigot over it. People often forgo the tub to soak in and just stand in the tub and take a shower. Some homes even have more than one bathroom.

I even have more than one bathroom. I have two, as a matter of fact. The one I use to shower in has a shower stall. It is right off my bedroom and it is an easy and convenient place to take my daily shower. My second bathroom is off the hall near the living room. I don’t use that bathtub to shower in. It is less convenient in the morning and I certainly don’t need to use two bathrooms for the purposes of a daily shower, thank you very much. I also happen to live alone and for the most part, neighbors aren’t knocking on my door every day to ask if they can use my tub. Their Condos all came equipped with their own bathrooms.

Irena Shulz and I starting a batch of Chop. (Photo courtesy of Janet Hilton)

 As you know, I make Chop. I make a LOT of Chop. And due to the amount I make all at once, I use the tub to mix it in. That would be the tub I don’t take a shower in. So for all practical purposes, this tub is used as a container in which to mix Chop. Period.

I don’t use it to wash car parts. I don’t use it to make bathtub gin.

Keeping a tub clean is very simple. I’m sure everyone knows how to do it. Most tubs are made with a nonporous surface like porcelain that is simple to keep clean. Lots of soapy, hot water with a cleaning brush and a thorough rinsing with very hot water usually does the trick. My tub even has a drain and running water in it that makes both scrubbing and rinsing easy and convenient. I’m fairly certain most tubs these days come with these features.

Now, I don’t know what other people’s tubs look like, but I like a clean tub. I don’t have sweaty, grimy little kids who just came off the soccer field showering in it. I don’t have a husband who spent the day working at a construction site cleaning up in it. I use it to make Chop.

Some of the comments I have seen about using the tub to make Chop absolutely astound me. If this grosses them out, I really wonder what their tubs look like. Don’t they keep their tubs clean? Don’t they wash it out? Seriously, when I see comments like “Yuk!” I am sitting there scratching my head and thinking, “Honey, if you are saying that about your own tub, I don’t even want to know…”

Irena Mixes a batch of Chop. Photo: courtesy of Janet Hilton

Seriously, what difference does it make? A clean container is a clean container. I don’t care if you make Chop in a bowl. If that bowl is not clean, it’s not clean. And if they can’t keep their tub clean enough to mix Chop in it, why in the hell would anyone want to use it as a bath tub? Yuk!

I really believe this is one of those online “Holier than thou” approaches people take to make themselves feel better. You can post something like, “I took my vitamins today.” and some kook will get on there and beat it to death giving you warnings about Vitamin A overdoses, or how taking vitamins is killing the people in China. Gloom and Doom! Death and Destruction! Hell in a Handcart! “The Sky is Falling!”

Spare me from those posts. Everyone’s a critic. And, as a friend of mine has stated, “People are very brave when they are hiding behind a keyboard.”

It’s real simple. I keep my tub very clean. I use it to make Chop. I’m not performing surgery in there, I’m mixing vegetables for parrots. If you don’t want to use your tub to make Chop, that’s your business. Make it in any container you prefer that works for you.

But in the meantime, stay out of my tub.