Heat

Ah! That’s nice. It’s warm again; although it isn’t perfect, it is more comfortable than it has been recently. The chimney sweep has come and done his thing, removing a large barrel full of creosote. Stage III creosote to be exact. Who knew that creosote could be so technical? Well, Stage III creosote looks almost like shards of black pumice. It’s light and filled with air pockets. It breaks like glass and is very dangerous; or so I was told. And although we didn’t experience a full blown flue fire, the sweep said that there was evidence that a minor fire had started and then had gone out. Lucky us.

A flue fire is an experience that you don’t need. We had a few of them when living in Janesville and although there was no damage done, it was quite frightening to see flames shooting out past the chimney cap and to hear the sound of a large locomotive coming from within the woodstove. Once the fire gets started in the creosote, it sucks air from every possible source and even the best of air tight stoves have small air gaps and that’s where the sound is coming from. I would swear that I saw our Earth Stove vibrating during one fire.