I'm probably overreacting but I need a little reassurance.
As if any wake up call on a Sunday morning planned to sleep in can be pleasant, last night I laid down by my wood stove to sleep seeing as it was raining, damp and chilly out. This is SOP around here.
This morning the ice storm caused the power to go out. Living here in the sticks that's not unique. Ten minutes later the power came back on and I was well pleased...and still half asleep. THe stove began feeding wood again, the fire restarted and all seemed well with the world. It was one less thing I had to deal with when shaking off sleeps bonds...leaving me more time to reset every clock in this shack.
Approximately a half hour later the power went out again. Goodness gracious, rats, Holy gee, sayeth I, or words to that effect. I began mentally composing a love letter to the power company asking why the folks in million dollar homes a mile away never seem to lose power and us denziens of Little Washington Road where the grass is green and the girls are pretty seem to lose juice when the humidity approaches 30 percent. It was a half hour ill spent but pleasurably enjoyed.
That's when the stove started acting up. At this point there was no electricity but the fire in the hopper was in the course of burning itself out. That's when the stove did something I have never seen before. It exhaled around the door gasket with a sound much like a sneeze That blew blackened ash out around the gasket onto that little tray in front of the stove. No combustibles hit the carpet but obviously I was on alert. It did that twice again, each time with the fire in the burn box flaring up momentarily. That got my attention. Fire extinguisher at the ready I opened the hopper lid to make sure the fuel was not on fire. It was warm to the touch but not hot. Enough smoke bellowed out of the hopper to set the smoke alarms to wailing causing me no end of consternation and alarm given I rarely wake up before noon on Sundays.
Enough white smoke was billowing out the chimney a neighbor stopped by to make sure all was well. Given our lack of options we stared at the wood stove, each armed with a fire extinguisher and a rare pre-noon beer. The embers in the burnpot went out, the electrical company resumed providing juice, and all seems well right now though given the amount of frozen precipitation I doubt that's long term.
This whole "stove sneezing" thing has me a little on edge. Is this something normal or is it indicative of a real bad problem?
As if any wake up call on a Sunday morning planned to sleep in can be pleasant, last night I laid down by my wood stove to sleep seeing as it was raining, damp and chilly out. This is SOP around here.
This morning the ice storm caused the power to go out. Living here in the sticks that's not unique. Ten minutes later the power came back on and I was well pleased...and still half asleep. THe stove began feeding wood again, the fire restarted and all seemed well with the world. It was one less thing I had to deal with when shaking off sleeps bonds...leaving me more time to reset every clock in this shack.
Approximately a half hour later the power went out again. Goodness gracious, rats, Holy gee, sayeth I, or words to that effect. I began mentally composing a love letter to the power company asking why the folks in million dollar homes a mile away never seem to lose power and us denziens of Little Washington Road where the grass is green and the girls are pretty seem to lose juice when the humidity approaches 30 percent. It was a half hour ill spent but pleasurably enjoyed.
That's when the stove started acting up. At this point there was no electricity but the fire in the hopper was in the course of burning itself out. That's when the stove did something I have never seen before. It exhaled around the door gasket with a sound much like a sneeze That blew blackened ash out around the gasket onto that little tray in front of the stove. No combustibles hit the carpet but obviously I was on alert. It did that twice again, each time with the fire in the burn box flaring up momentarily. That got my attention. Fire extinguisher at the ready I opened the hopper lid to make sure the fuel was not on fire. It was warm to the touch but not hot. Enough smoke bellowed out of the hopper to set the smoke alarms to wailing causing me no end of consternation and alarm given I rarely wake up before noon on Sundays.
Enough white smoke was billowing out the chimney a neighbor stopped by to make sure all was well. Given our lack of options we stared at the wood stove, each armed with a fire extinguisher and a rare pre-noon beer. The embers in the burnpot went out, the electrical company resumed providing juice, and all seems well right now though given the amount of frozen precipitation I doubt that's long term.
This whole "stove sneezing" thing has me a little on edge. Is this something normal or is it indicative of a real bad problem?
