wood heat

[derien]

We've been using the wood stove in our kitchen for a while, now, but it just got really below freezing today, the little stove can't keep up, and we have a lot of larger pine logs to burn up, so we fired up the stove in the living room. I have to get my eyes nearly to floor level to see the controls on the circulation fan, so when the stove was getting hot and I went to turn it on I'm crouched down on my knees, head down. I was busy refamiliarizing myself with the controls when I saw little bits of soot landing on my hands. No big deal. Then I saw sparks falling, and realized I could smell my hair burning. I patted it out and took a look into the air circulation space on top of the stove and saw embers in there. So I fetched Matt so he could be in on the fun. He decided the thing to do was turn the fan back on and get in there with the poker to shake the stuff out. Turned out it was a little soot that had fallen down when he cleaned the chimney, and it was just burning up the rest of the way.

Always a bit of an adventure when we spark up the stoves the first time.

Time to put on the insulated jumpsuit and go move firewood for next year.