Thoughts on my mother, showers and baths

My dad put up a shed adjoining the back of the house and a tank of water that would warm in the sun for our showers in the summer. He did the same down at the barn, so especially during hay season in the summer the men could shower before going home or coming to the house at day's end. Usually in hay season several men would get together and help each other going from farm to farm. If they worked at our place Mother usually fed them the noon dinner. Our stove was catty corner in the kitchen and dad did the same thing there. He put a tank next to the stove so Mother would have warm water. In the winter we would bathe in a big tub behind the stove. Dad piped water from the spring up to the house so Mother always had water in the kitchen and did not have to go get it. My mother was always asked to bake a cake or provide a chicken every time there was something going on in town. Some kind of supper or something. I used to think they used her as a maid. When they wanted a chicken she would have to kill it and take out the feathers and dress it for them. They being town women, they did not do that sort of work.