Getting Ready For Winter – Cleaning The Chimney...

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.

Chimney Sweep...

6:55 pm - 38 degrees - raining...

We heat our home with a wood stove from roughly around September until May.  This ends up being one long continuous burning season at our elevation of 2,200 feet.  

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.

One downside is the creosote that builds-up on the inside of the chimney and in the chimney cap that can cause chimney fires.  Creosote builds up gradually over time and can become a very serious fire hazard. 

There is no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to how often you should clean out your chimney.  Tony cleans out our chimney every fall, right before the cold season hits.

After Tony has all the ladders in place and secured, he climbs up and removes the chimney cap. 

Fishing a safety line up and over the house.

That is a lot of creosote built up on the chimney cap!

Then he moves inside to remove the double wall section of the chimney and takes it outside to clean later.

Creosote build-up on the inside of the chimney.

After taping a large plastic garbage bag to the bottom of the chimney inside, he then heads back outside to start cleaning the chimney with the chimney brush.

After he has everything cleaned and as creosote-free as possible, he re-assembles everything and cleans up the mess.  Over all, it probably took him about an hour, maybe an hour and a half from start to finish. 

Tony up on the roof putting everything back together.

Though creosote inevitably builds up over time, 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. 

Firewood Cutting Is Underway...

12:43 pm - 60 degrees - lightly raining...

A wood-burning fireplace is one of the simplest joys of the winter months.  It’s also a lot of work.

For us, our wood burning fireplace is currently our only source of heat, so falling, cutting, splitting and stacking firewood is an important skill for us to know and do.

  

Tony does all the falling of trees and cutting those logs into rounds.  Thankfully we live on many acres of wooded forest so we are able to start at the source.

  

I help Tony with the splitting.  Even when log rounds are small in diameter, it makes sense to split them.  Splitting speeds along the drying process and improves the burning qualities.

And we all pitch in to do the stacking.

Even though the ideal time to cut firewood is in the late winter and early spring months (this allows for the maximum drying time), we usually have so much going on, that we don’t get around to cutting, splitting and stacking our firewood until the end of July, beginning of August.

So firewood cutting for this coming winter is underway.  Tony spent last weekend cutting this pile of logs...

...into this pile of rounds. 

Now the splitting and stacking starts.  How much wood could a wood stacker stack if a wood stacker could stack wood?  We’ll soon find out...

Drip...Drip...Drip...

11:58 am - 43 degrees - raining and windy (35+ mph)...

Wind in the mountains is unlike anything we have ever experienced.  Since the wind likes to swirl around the house, the rain and snow come from every possible direction – sometimes we feel like we’re inside a snowglobe.

Due to the high winds and heavy rains, that are very determined and persistent on coming down the stove pipe, we had to switch out the standard chimney cap with a high wind directional cap.  That seemed to do the trick...for a while that is.  After a few winters of heavy snow, broke the seal on the storm collar to the stove pipe.  So when the heavy rain storms hit, the stove pipe would leak. 

Up the ladder Tony went and climbed up to the peak of the roof, which is 34 feet up in the air, all to fix the first storm collar and add a second one.  He removed the old storm collar, cleaned it up, modified it to fit better, then reinstalled and sealed it.  He then installed and sealed a second storm collar on top of the first one.  We’re hoping that by having two storm collars it will be more rigid and withstand the heavy snow and keep the rain out.

Uses for Wood Ash...

9:50 am - 58 degrees - windy...

With the nights getting colder, our fireplace is being used more regularly again and the more wood we burn, the more wood ash we get.  Each cord of firewood burned leaves about 20 pounds of ashes or more, depending on your fuel source, heating appliance, and wood burning skill.

Back in the old days, wood ash had many practical uses around the homestead.  It was spread over fields as fertilizer, used in the making of soap, and helped repel pests from vegetable gardens and fruit trees.  Some of these old fashioned uses for wood ash still make sense today.  Instead of putting the wood ashes out with the trash, put your ashes to use in and around your home.  Here are some great modern uses for your leftover wood ash.

Safety first – as with all aspects of wood heating, use vigilance and common sense in handling and managing your ashes.  Store them in a covered metal container set on dirt or concrete a few feet in all directions from any combustible surface.  Even though the ashes may appear cold, buried embers may remain live for days, even weeks.  Because wood ash can be harmful to the skin, always wear gloves when tackling one of these projects.

1 – Dust Baths – place cold ashes where your birds can get to them, the dust baths will control bugs.

2 – Ring Around the Rosie – spread a low ring around individual plants in your garden to deter slugs/snails.

3 – Lawn Fertilizer – wood ash contains 10-25% calcium, 1-4% magnesium, 5-15% potassium and 1-3% phosphorus.

4 – Cleaning Agent – mix with water to form a paste and use on the glass in your wood stove or fireplace.  Ditto for rings left on wood furniture from glasses.  It’s abrasive, so use with care.  Ditto for polishing silver.

5 – Great Fertilizer – for tomatoes, other nightshade veggies, and fruit trees.

6 – Sprinkle on Slippery Walks – it take very little!

7 – GREAT Ice Melt! – it’s alkaline nature makes ice melt, and then if the sun is out, the darkness of the ash creates heat, melting ice more and faster than regular ice melt.

8 – Algae Deterrent – VERY little needed.  1 Tbs per 1000 gallons of water as needed.

 

9 – Odor Control – de-skunk pets by using a handful rubbed onto your animal’s coat neutralizes the lingering odor.

10 – Enrich Compost – before the organic compound gets applied to soil, enhance its nutrients by sprinkling in a few ashes.  Adding too much, though, ruins the mix.

11 – Make Lye for Soap – soaking ashes in water makes lye, which can be mixed with animal fat (tallow or lard) and then boiled to produce soap.  It takes some work and old timers only use hickory ash, but it can be done.
 

Making lye from wood ash.

 

A White Christmas Weekend…

39 degrees outside - 6:38 pm - raining...

It was a white Christmas weekend, and what a wonderful weekend it was!  On Christmas Eve as we were heading home we saw a bald eagle swoop down to the rushing river that runs along the road and snatch a fish out landing in a nearby tree.  Shortly after we arrived home another bald eagle made several low swoops in the backyard before returning to fly circles in the sky and then disappearing.  The next several days were spent laughing, talking and eating with wonderful family and friends.  It was a very busy weekend but a good one.

Now that the holiday weekend is over, back to work we go.  We currently have several inches of snow on the ground here, and the weather is in that freezing/thawing place where it will turn to rain, then sleet, then snow, then back to rain again.  The woodstove is always crackling away, but there have been a few nights when we were able let it go out overnight and rekindle it in the early morning.

Even though we have had snow on the ground since a week before Thanksgiving, we haven’t had that many days to actually play in it.  It is either a mini blizzard outside, pouring down rain or so windy we are worried the kids will be blown over.  The weather report for today is calling for more snow tonight and tomorrow with the snow level dropping down to 500 feet so we should get some more snow.  Hopefully we will have a few nice days of weather where we can go outside and play before school starts next week.

I’m Not Santa Claus…

39 degrees outside - 8:12 pm - cold night with showers...

Today my husband strapped on his safety harness and climbed up onto the peak of the roof, which is 34 feet up in the air, all to switch out the chimney cap.

At the beginning of this year we searched Craigslist for a woodstove.  After many weeks we finally found a Buck Stove model 21FS for $450.  When we went to check it out, to our surprise, it came with nearly forty feet of insulated stovepipe, flashings, roof supports, adjustable double-wall interior pipe, and all the hearth accessories. 

We needed a temporary heat source for the upstairs, which is just less than 1300 square feet.  This model was the perfect freestanding unit with a heating range of 800 to 1800 square feet.  We would still like to add the optional blower, which will give maximum heat circulation.

 

Due to the high winds and heavy rains, that were very determined and persistent on coming down the stove pipe, we had to switch out the standard cap it came with to a high wind directional cap. This cap should help stop the wind from down drafting and the rain from sneaking in.