"I bring in my own coal too," she said.
"I've got a coal range and an open fire to keep going."
Fiercely independent, Mrs Rendall cares for her Down-syndrome son Geoffrey, the youngest of her five children, who lives with her.
"I can do everything, but looking after Geoffrey can be hard," she said.
"I bake a fruit cake and a tray of shortbread every week and I do all my own cooking."
Mrs Rendall spent her 100th birthday yesterday in Gore Hospital, where she was recovering from a fall.
"I broke my hip but they gave me a new one," she said.
She was looking forward to going home.
"I've got work to do. I started filling the wool bags with wood before I came in here," she said.
Mrs Rendall was born in Riversdale and and grew up at Ardlussa with her three brothers and one sister.
"We walked five miles every day to school," she said.
She attended St Catherine's College in Invercargill before marrying John, a farming contractor.
They moved to Gore and bought up their five children.
"I didn't work; I stayed home and milked the cows," she said.
Mrs Rendall said she did not ever expect to live to 100 and the secret to doing that was "finding the humour in everything. You have to have a laugh." She received congratulatory cards from the Queen and Prime Minister John Key yesterday.
"And that [Clutha Southland MP] Bill English, he sent one," she said.
She would be sharing her large birthday cake with family and friends but did not want a fuss made of her big day.
"I never celebrate anything; I can't be bothered," she said.
"I was never a party lady."
Gore Hospital nursing manager Delwyn Soper said the nursing staff at the hospital had a "soft spot" for Mrs Rendall.
"She keeps us on our toes - she's the boss," she said.
- The Ensign
