It’s eight in the morning now, and I slept up till about an hour ago, so I am feeling pretty good. Out of bed, dressed, down the stairs, loo, kiss the wife, clear the ash out of the woodstove, load it with logs, coffee, tablets, and computer. It is rainy looking out the window, and when I looked, there was no sign of snow anywhere but on that little patch out front by the small pickup truck. Wind is ranging 15 to 24 miles an hour at the moment, and the weeds out the front window are showing with their rendition of the funky chicken.
Weather being like that, I don’t know so much that I am heading out to the yard to work today, or if Missus still wants to go to town to sort out some things. We do need to get her glasses. That reminds me, I also need to put gas in the car.
I am still astounded by that Uber delivery I took yesterday. With tip it ended up being $37! A check with Missus on the topic of going out, and she says Monday. Fine, and on goes the Uber App. Well, I am going to take it if it livens up! Might actually make some real money while running the little Door Dash runs in between. Who knows? I wish there was a consistent market close enough I could count on getting runs at will. I could make enough to live on with that. And I could do it at will. And enough, is enough. I’m happy with that.
The kids are up now, and the dishes are wandering through the kitchen sink. I have been doing them most of the time lately. So, the break is nice as my oldest goes on with it. I huffed and puffed on the hot coals in the stove and finally got it to light up. Another log on top, and the fire is beginning to put a little heat up the flu. It is windy, and there is definitely a certain amount of clogging in at least one of the choke points. That causes the wind coming into the chimney to have a great effect on pushing back against the heat trying to go up. One the flu is hot, there is a much greater force of hot air pushing back against it, and the chimney would have to be pretty plugged up for it to push hard enough for the air to come back down. But my sign that things are getting tight in those choke points is the smoke not flowing easily up the chimney. Or it could be just the force of the wind. But the wind needs to be stronger to stop it up that much when things are clean. It’s all a spectrum.
The thermometer placed correctly at 18 inches up the flue pipe from the stove top is now indicating a temperature that puts the needle on the border between the yellow and the green indices. When it gets there and into the green a fire will self-sustain just fine with the stove door closed, and I ca heat the house efficiently and more cleanly. Time to close the door! Next is to adjust the draft down till the fire slows some, and the stove just maintains the heat required to keep the house warm. I usually burn in the first quarter of the green zone, and let it burn down in the yellow. I don’t burn anywhere near the red, and I am certainly never one to do that stupid looking stunt of burning the stove to any shade of glowing red. I don’t understand that. I like my house more than that. I like my family more than that. It appears too high a risk to both, to me. I can feel the heat coming from the stove, but since closing the door, it has cooled down to the yellow.
The actual temperatures don’t really matter with such a visual indicator. But as you can see, the pipe wants to be at about 275F or above to keep a clean burn and in the case of my particular stove, a self-sustaining one. Mind, once it is going and the wood has formed charcoals on it, it will sustain in the yellow zone just fine. As you can also see, it is probably time to freshen up and get a new thermometer. I wonder if I can still find a nice one with that “Made In USA” label at the bottom? That would be nice.
I think it is time to get a new coffee, and remind the kids that mom included ‘put them away’ on the dishwashing chore list. Then ask them to toss the cats out before the house starts receiving parcels. One of the cats is called “Serious Black.” I am asking my youngest daughter to get Serious. We all love that name a little too much.
Coffee!