Heating System Maintenance

Today, the storm windows went back up.  And it was time for the final maintenance check on the chimneys by our resident Chimney Sweep MM before we light the stove for the first time this season. 

It's one of the most important jobs to be done in the fall.  Making sure no soot or creosote has pasted itself to the chimney is critical.  Chimney fires are no fun.  Speaking from experience.  Luckily, we've only had one and it was confined to the chimney and did a great job of cleaning it completely.  But, believe me, it's not the preferred method of "sweeping" the chimney.  The sound of a chimney fire alone is enough to terrorize owners of woodburning stoves to be pro-active when it comes to keeping their chimneys and stovepipes free of that black shiney stuff.

Here's how --visually-- it looks--the supplies, the tools, the sweep and the results...

This is what everyone who uses a woodstove should be using!  Follow the directions on the container and make sure to use it regularly.  Both are important, but especially the Creosote Destroyer.  There are several brands.  Check with your local hardware store.  Chances are they'll have it.  I'll mention here that one of the reasons to burn dried (rather than green) wood is the prevention of creosote formation in your chimney.  Also, it's important to select wood carefully for the burning quality.  Wild cherry, for example is among the worst of the creosote-creators.  It can gum up the chimney faster than any wood I can think of.

These two heavy duty brushes do a great job of scraping the inside of the chimney.

Extensions screw together so the brush can be rammed down the flue and hauled back up again.  In our case the chimney length (the longest one) is 18 feet.

I drag the good old shop vacuum into the house and suck out the dust and chips of dried creosote from each chimney. And we clean the stovepipes, as well.  A round brush is ideal for the pipes.

The creosote, if any,  makes a whale of a mess when it comes down the flue, but the vacuum does a great job of containing the debris.

And, when we're all done and the temperature dips, we'll enjoy the warmth of the Waterford with a merry flame in the window, and soup burbling on the back of the Pioneer Maid.

Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to visit this past week!

It's going to be a lovely fall weekend here JOTOLR!

Hope the same's true in your neck of the woods!

See you Monday!

I'm Late, I'm Late!!! for my blog date!

I was running pell mell to keep apace with the fast-driving tractor man (MM) yesterday, This beautiful Buckeye popped out of the grass in front of me.  I flailed the camera bag off my shoulder, zipped it open, yanked out the Rebel and got this one-handed shot, as I held up my other hand, traffic-cop style and commanded MM stop.  He did...I'm sure you knew that!  But there's just a teensy bit of fuzziness around the edges of the shot, so all the chasing, and dashing, and whatever, created some challenge, not to mention breathing fast!

It was a "town day" today, but one I really liked.  I am cleaning out our old cottage and had a mountain of good stuff that I didn't want.  It's amazing how many thrift stores have opened in our little nearby town of Lewisburg!  I learned of four today, maybe five...the one I chose for a small heap of Pampered Chef kitchen stuff, was right on the way we were heading.  The people were so friendly and happy to get my gifts.  You can be sure I will be bringing more.  I was thinking, as I left the items, what a great place so shop for Christmas!  How could you do better than to pay a modest price for something nice, something that someone else (like me) had passed along to others.  Good stuff.  I believe shopping at Thrifts is one of the best ways we can help change the world.

I repeat:

Use it up

Wear it out

Make it do

Or do without!

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Two of my readers emailed me earlier in the week with a link to a fascinating article in the New York Times about coyotes.  For those of you following MM's and my coyote adventures, I believe you'll find it doubly interesting.

Here's the link: (you might have to paste the info below into your Browser.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28coyotes.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1285755674-fQ0BiXlEd/qy3mCOR0zNww

I wanted to make clear one thing:  MM and I are not about wholesale killing of coyotes.  We are about making enough noise that the coyotes don't want to mess with our turkeys and chickens.  We hope they'll continue their distant lives elsewhere.  The shotgun noise serves to accomplish this.  They haven't been here since the full moon.

Thank you, Miriam and Debbi!

Two-Dog Night Comin' Up

It's a misty day.  Low clouds.  More rain in the forecast (hooray!).  We went over to the backside to salvage some fence posts, but other than a little effort in that direction, I think I have Fall Fever.  It's exactly the same as Spring Fever, only it happens in late September through early October.  I have this mysterious lethargy. All I want to do is watch trees.  Landscapes have become my passion.  I am enraptured with the daily changes.  I found a wooly worm today.  It was all brownish-orange. No black on it. Hmmmm...is that ominous?  I wonder....  Last years' wooly worms. I'd noticed, were all black. No orange brown whatsoever.  So, does that mean we'll have a more user-friendly winter this year?   The garden still has crisp, tasty greens of all kinds, Brussels sprouts, a few tomatoes;NOAA weather is calling for 36 degrees toward Saturday!  Need to get a couple of dogs in for the first two-dog night since last fall!

Soft and Gentle

I padded my way through the woods this morning in search of an image that would convey this soft and gentle time of year, the in-betweens of summer and fall, with cool nights, gentle breezes and gentle days...

My steps were practically soundless on the dampened path, especially compared to the sharp crackling of crisp leaves day before yesterday.  The rain has come, though not as much as we would like, of course.  The only disturbance as I walked came from a pair of woodpeckers talking to one another and arguing about which one owned a particularly scruffy, bug-riven pine tree.  Tulip Poplar leaves cascaded down around me, carpeting the ground at my feet with gold.  When the woodpeckers decided to shop elsewhere, the forest became quiet again until a squirrel overhead began to lecture me.  Everyone's got a viewpoint to be shared.   As I said, we've gotten a modest amount of rain--almost two inches. The forecast is for dropping temperatures as the week moves forward--down into the forties.  Guess I will be forced to put on those flannel sheets after all!  I think I am feeling almost weightless with the end of the garden season this year.  The whirlwind has subsided.  It's time to rest a bit before we head into winter. 

Rainy Days and Mondays....

...always make me glad!

Finally!  The cows are getting a bath!  Same with the turkeys.  Oh, my!  I think it's called "rain" if I recall correctly...As rains go, so far, this hasn't measured up to the billing from the Weather Forecasting crew.  Last night they'd mentioned something along the lines of three to five inches...uhh, somebody needs to sharpen their measuring skills a bit  .  But let me not complain.  Some is better than none.  The pastures are a sudden-green, as if they had all but forgotten how to do green.  Brown and crisp has been the color de jour.  Marigold and Honeysuckle are clean again.  Bright white on a black background.  And today's an "inside" day for us.  MM's been needing a rest on his knee anyway, so that dovetails nicely with plans for a rainy day!

Old Yeller

Last night's full moon

Welcome Autumn!  Here's that Harvest Moon-plus-one-night. 

Still into the torpor here, but it's lookin' good for some rain come Saturday and Sunday.  Temperatures are supposed to moderate considerably and we can sure use that moisture! The pastures are really dry, even to the point where it's affecting the amount of milk we are getting from Marigold, despite some grain, pears and apples for her, along with unlimited water availability.  She doesn't like grazing in this "unnatural" heat.  Once again, today, it will be 90+ degrees.  But, this should be the last of it (until the next rise). 

The coyotes paid us another visit last night.  So, at 2:00 AM you would have heard the blast of a shotgun out here JOTOLR.  It was enough to drive them off...mostly. An hour later, I heard them again, but this time they were quite a ways distant, and I went back to sleep.

Thank you everyone for the conversation, comments and visits this past week!  We're still in the midst of harvest out here JOTOLR, so blogging has been a bit hit 'n miss as far as times of posting and comments. (Will I ever improve???!!)

 Hope everyone has delightful weekend!   

See you Monday!

HOT'n COOL

It's another scorcher today.  Ninety degrees.  Records are being broken all over the map!  Things out here JOTOLR are crisp.  Out fencing yesterday, the heat was intense, but a good breeze was blowing.  The downside of that refreshing breeze is that we hold our collective breath that some idiot won't decide to burn trash.  There's no telling where a wildfire could spread, given these horribly dry conditions and a good draft.

On the other hand, last night we sat out on the porch and watched that glorious moon climb the black bowl.  Right below it is Jupiter with it's stunning brilliance.  Not many stars visible, but oh, what a joyous evening as we rocked back and simply watched, in silence,  the leaves of the nearby maple, susurrant as a cool breeze walked through. 

Life is good.