Judging from the last month, one would never know that we have a lot of experience heating with wood.  Every place we have lived has been equipped with either a fireplace or sealed wood burning stove…in one of our houses, the Windows would have to be open in the bedroom upstairs because the heat from the wood burner in the basement would track up the clothes shoot to the bedrooms on the second floor.  It was very uncomfortable.  We lived in a timber area for nearly 30 years so wood was plentiful.  Watching him outside splitting the wood was  quite attractive but we will save that for a different blog.

Keeping this in mind…twice in the last month, we have filled the house with smoke.  The first time, I opened up the fireplace and opened the flue while he was out getting the wood …. Apparently he didn’t hear me say I have it all opened up (no hearing aids at all) so he thought he was opening it up…filled it with wood, used the gas igniter and realized right away that smoke was billowing…quick action saved the day.  Last night…it happened again…I asked which way the handle is supposed to be..he’s distracted and says he’s sure it is closed because he had just cleaned it out…so I opened it…he stacked the wood….set it off but noticed it wasn’t drawing and we had a little smell of smoke, he reached in with a hot pan holder and  hit the lever to “open” it….then…..

Smoke started rolling out…I was reading a book and seriously didn’t notice it until he came in from the kitchen brought my attention to the heavy smoke in the house and reversed the lever action yet again.  Smoke detectors were going off, windows were opened, attic fan was activated and the house still smells like smoke.

Now I sit here contemplating a nice fire…supposed to be chilly…I think flue lever in front means closed and back means open…but who really knows….I really don’t want to develop a friendship with the Pleasant Hill firemen like I had with the Kellogg volunteer fire department in Iowa.  There are stories!

Until next time…