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This is the perfect time of year for me…..

It’s cold (for Florida)…..

It’s overcast (a lot of the time)…..

And it all creates the perfect ambience for keeping a fire going in our den…..

We don’t need a roaring/huge fire…we don’t need to augment the room’s temperature much…..

…..but the glow and crackle make for a perfect mood-setting and safe & sound feeling…..

I’ve remedied last year’s smoky down-drafts (I think)…..

It took remembering what my father had taught me about burning a diagonally twisted piece of newspaper at the back of the fireplace first…before starting the rest of the fire…..

…..it creates a temperature draught up the chimney…and the rest of the heat and smoke seems to want to follow…..

So this year…our eyes are burning less…the Jack Russell is more relaxed and less twitchy (he hates smoke)…..

…..and an afternoon and/or evening can be spent with a fire in the fireplace adding it’s own zen atmosphere…..

I’m valuing good split firewood more these days…..

I’ll still sneak in the occasional pithy old piece…(just to help clean up the back yard)…but for the most part I try to stick to the good stuff…..

Hardly any of the wood is appropriately chain-sawed…I just drag up pieces and thwack them on the ground until they’ll fit through the door or into the fireplace…..

I’ve found this routine to be a good/healthy/remedial therapy…..

…..especially when I use it to visualize irritating people at the other end of the thwacked log…..

The new chimney cap still leaks…even after the chimney sweeps several return visits…..

I’ll probably put back the old cement slab…new and shiny has proven itself not to be better…..

…..come this summer’s rainy-season…we’ll be back to the mop bucket again…catching the sooty water coming down the chimney…..

Spring will come eventually…with thaws and flowers…for you Northerners…..

But that’s okay…at least for now………….the fire’s banked and waiting…the popcorn’s in the cupboard…the tea’s in the pot…and surprisingly…we somehow need more chocolate bars for the s’mores…(again)…..

 

 

 

 

 

#downdraft #flue #updraft #

#pyromania #chimneysweep #soot #hersheyschocolatebars #smores #jackrussellterrier #firewood