Last year I think our first fire in our fireplace was earlier.

It could have been earlier this year…………if I had just gotten everything organized a little sooner.

I have been accumulating palmetto sticks and wood piles and brush piles all over this property………………in anticipation of burning them when it gets close to cold enough.

Good wood; bad wood; aged wood; wet wood; green wood……………..I’ll burn anything……………(but, no pine).

(Pyromaniacs are like that…)

 

The wood’s out there…………………it beckons to me…

 

It just takes a trek into the back swamp or over into the side woods (dried swamp) to get the burnable wood back to the house and into the fireplace.

 

But last night we (I) got the first fire of the season going.

I love fires…………..I really do…

 

 

I knocked the old cobwebs out of the flue, or fumed the dust-covered fluffy things up the chimney.

 

My older daughter and I had swept & cleaned the chimney last year………….I think it’s still good to go this year.

 

The fire isn’t just an ambiance-supporting experience…………….it’s a necessity right now…………..our heater’s on the fritz…………..well actually it’s not working at all…

Our weather did a 180 degree turn from the high 80’s one day to the high 30’s the next night………………and we are now shivering without a working heater…

 

My younger daughter and I are both voluntarily sleeping in the den with the Irish Wolfhound puppies.

We are doing this to keep warm by the fire.

 

 

The puppies are fine, they are sleeping on a heating pad, buried in shredded newspaper.

We’re not so lucky.

The rest of the house is super chilly………………but the den is roasty-toasty…………….if I keep the fireplace stoked.

But this is where my insomnia and my pyromania go hand-in-hand.

I’m easily up enough throughout the night and I’ve already dragged enough wood up close to the house where I can have enough near at hand to keep the fire radiating heat throughout the night…

The puppies are happy and healthy (we still have three chubby, thriving puppies).  My daughter and I are not super comfortable on the couches…………….but at least we’re warm.

The repairman is coming tomorrow afternoon…………….the weather will be in the eighties again…………….(but who knows what’s around the corner……………we need a working heater).

So———let the Winter Games Begin!!!