Well, we've finally jumped on the bandwagon and started a blog. I guess we'll be able to keep people updated with what is going on in our lives.
Anywho, we had a pretty exciting day a couple weeks ago. We woke up around 5:30am (waaay too early!) and smelled smoke. I ran into my office because I thought it was my computer. I turned it off and realized that it wasn't the source of smoke. I then walked past our wood pellet stove that we use to heat the house, and bingo! That was it. We had smoke leaking out of the bottom of the pipe chimney. It was also very hot. So, I turned off the pellet stove and went outside to make sure our roof wasn't on fire. The top of the chimney was glowing red, but no flames were visible on the roof. I had Kim go get the fire extinguisher and then I went into our attic to see if we had any fire there. Smoke poured out of the roof, but no flames! Thank heavens!
So, we then opened up all of the windows and doors so that we could air out the house. There's nothing like having the temperature of your house drop from the upper 60's down the lower 40's in a matter of minutes! As soon as the stove repair service was open, I called and got an appointment for a repair man to come inspect our stove to make sure it was safe to use again. In the meantime, I started cleaning out the stove to remove any ash. Cleaning the chimney was fun, er... dirty. Getting dirty is fun, right? I learned (the hard way) that it is best to clean the chimney starting from the top. If you clean it from the bottom, you keep getting pockets of ash rushing down the chimney and spreading a cloud of ash all over you.
You know it is cold when Kia is willing to share the dog bed
The repair man didn't come until 9pm that day, so we spend the bulk of the day huddled in my office with two space heaters going. That kept us warm enough, at least it was better than the 20 degrees outside.
The repair man checked everything out and helped us to finish cleaning out the chimney. Everything looked fine after the cleaning, and he said it was a chimney fire that caused the smoke. Lucky for us, it was contained inside the chimney.
I guess this is all part of the fun of living in the country and doing things differently than we would have if we lived in the city. You definitely can't beat the view or the peace and quiet found out here.
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