With a reasonably warm and sunny day today and due to us being on the road for hockey until late afternoon I let the stove go after last night's final loading cycle.
This afternoon when we arrived home I got up on the roof with the brush and rods to give the chimney a quick cleaning.
First good news is due to burning some of the best wood we have ever had there was a ridiculously small amount of powder to shovel out of the stove after the scrub.
The bonus came when I found enough coals in the ash to start the stove without matches or a lighter.
I think that means we have only used matches/lighter on the stove 3 times since October. On one of those times I was too impatient to blow on the kindling on those last few tiny coals.
We still have lots of shoulder season and maybe even a blizzard or two left but the winter has been mild and we still have a reasonable amount of wood left.
Time to get cutting again.
This afternoon when we arrived home I got up on the roof with the brush and rods to give the chimney a quick cleaning.
First good news is due to burning some of the best wood we have ever had there was a ridiculously small amount of powder to shovel out of the stove after the scrub.
The bonus came when I found enough coals in the ash to start the stove without matches or a lighter.
I think that means we have only used matches/lighter on the stove 3 times since October. On one of those times I was too impatient to blow on the kindling on those last few tiny coals.
We still have lots of shoulder season and maybe even a blizzard or two left but the winter has been mild and we still have a reasonable amount of wood left.
Time to get cutting again.