6:04 pm - 46 degrees - foggy, raining...
Sunday was the last
day of dry weather before the rain came, and with it more cold temperatures.
Even though we've already had a week of cold temps, Tony didn't want to
use the fireplace until we had had a good day of rain. Everything has
been too dry and the fire danger lever has been too high to take any chances.
We heat our home
with a wood stove from roughly around September until May. This ends up being one long continuous
burning season.
Having a wood burning fireplace
definitely has its ups and downs. The warm
glow of a fireplace is one of nature’s simple gifts... if you can ignore the
mess and hassle that come with their daily operation.
Though creosote inevitably
builds up over time inside the chimney and chimney cap which can become a very
serious fire hazard, by using only properly split and seasoned firewood, you
can slow the creosote accumulation. If
at all possible, try to steer clear of the slow, smoky, smoldering fires; these
tend to create creosote rather quickly.
Clean, hot burning fires are the ones that generate the least amount of
creosote.
There is no one-size-fits-all
rule when it comes to how often you should clean out your chimney. We just happen to do it at the end of every
summer, right before the cold season hits - Tony
climbs up our steep metal roof to clean out the chimney and chimney cap (which
is 34 feet up in the air) - something that we feel MUST be done before we can safely
use the fireplace.
