Saturday before last (Dec 5th I think) I get up and it's a nice cold crisp day. PERFECT for a fire!
Rick had left me some dried logs, so I run out and get a couple of nice big logs. Ahh.. nice... I'm sitting in my recliner with my coffee, a fluffy afghan, and all 3 of my dogs snuggled up with me. This is my ideal Saturday morning!........Until..... I start smelling the smoke from the fireplace. Darn it! It's windy! I didn't realize it was windy! Darn.. the doggie door was open, and it was pulling in the smoke from the fireplace.... No big.. I just closed it... thinking that would take care of it.. but it was still comming in... darn it... How do I get the backdraft to stop?? and in the meantime, I had to open the back door a bit to clear out the smoke (dahh.. that was stupid)... it just got worse! Everythign I did made the smoke pull in more and more... It was burning our eyes! Lord.... what the heck do I do now!... lol..
I tried to pretty much sealed off the house. Making sure I closed up all the doors... still came in!
Well, finally, I called the fire department (no, not dispatch, just the station.. ).. and asked them how the heck I get this stopped, that I was making it worse..
Well, other than what I'd already done, the only other thing he suggested is to get a fireplace shovel and very carefully place them in a METAL trash can and take them outside, run a hose on them... Hmmm...
I didn't have a metal trash can, but... I had a BIG shovel, and back patio, and a water hose! I can do it!!!
So.. I get dressed, (ahh minus shoes, who needs those) I have Kelsy get all the dogs in my room, and shut the door.. I prop open the back door, get my big regular shovel (that fireplace shovel would have been too flimsey!), start the hose and put it on the back porch...
Ok.. I'm ready! I get the first log... good so far.. I make sure its settled on the shovel pretty good.. I carefully back it out of the fireplace and slowly.... very slowly walk to the back door... I'm good! ahh oh! the wind hits the log! sparks everywhere! crap! I drop it on the concrete...OH NO! What if I catch the grass on fire!!!!! GRAB THE HOSE! OUCH!!! STEPPED ON AN EMBER! (should'a got shoes on)....I spray everything I can... all the grass around the patio further than it could have blown.. now smoke everywhere outside! Someone's gonna think my house in on fire and the the Fire Dept over... lol..
BUT it worked... now for the 2nd log...
Same thing again... but this time was prepared for the wind... ahhhh.. all is good... more smoke, but it's all good! Cool!!!!
BY THE WAY DON'T EVER TRY THIS! IT WAS PRETTY SCARRY.. !!!! SO many things could have gone SO WRONG...
Except for the smell of smoke in my house for over a week, and having to wash everying in my house that I could get ahold of, it's finally smelling normal again...
OH! Until Monday..... but I'll save that for the next blog. lol
