Last night the wind started, and eventually during the night the snow started to fall. By morning it was stuck to everything, and the wind was still going. The house was chilly, and wanting to be warmed up. So I went down to light the fire in the woodstove.
Did I mention that the wind was blowing, and the house was cold? I said, cool, didn’t I? Maybe it was cooler than that. Either way, the flu on the chimney was too cold to take a draught, and the wind was blowing down it. The wood was still a bit wet from the recent rains, too. Also, those wood shavings I am picking up off the shop floor are damp, or something, and a bit resistant to burning. I tried them anyhow, then paper from the butcher’s roll. Finally I went to get some of my kindling sticks and lit them. Now, that all sounds good and well, and maybe it seems understandable that so far some twenty minutes have gone by.
What was not reasonable was the amount of smoke that came out every direction from the stove! I could not get the least amount of it to vent up the chimney. It was as though the chimney was blocked completely! I could hear the wind still blowing outside, and according to the anemometer on the weather station it was running around 12 miles an hour with gusts of 17 or so. So it was going, but it was not too bad. But air just came down the chimney, and would not go out. I would get the fire going, and close the door, and it would go right out and start smoking out the stove’s intake. The house filled right up with it!
At last, I was about thirty minutes into this when the thermometer on the flue finally budged upwards a little, and as soon as it did, the smoke began to go up the chimney instead! So we aired out the house, which was not warm. We have had a good fire going since!
I have got a notification that the final stove parts will arrive on Thursday. I wonder how much of the smoke that came pouring into the house today would vent out through the intake if I got it hooked up properly? Or would it just leak and vent air into the attic or walls where the vent pipe travels?
The wind has continued, but the snow stopped early on in the day. It is 35 out right now, but with the wind gusting up just shy of 20, the chill factor is at 28. Nest week at this time it is meant to be in the mid 50’s again. Good time to get caught up on that firewood once and for all!
I am awaiting a call from Woodcraft to tell me the status of my delivery that is still stuck in Chicago. I worry that this very thing is a harbinger of why we live rural to begin with? Global trade is in danger, fuel prices are set to go up, and so are other fuels that are required for heating. This winter could be crazier than last! I just want to get my order here, and probably not order online like this again, at least for a while.
I don’t feel ready for this winter. I don’t think we are ready for such things as I suggested above, at all. I have put off the firewood for long enough. I don’t have hay yet, and I have not confirmed yet with my normal supplier that we will even get any from him, and at what price. I won’t bother him about it today as it is his birthday. I have never felt so close to a crash that is going to result in serious casualties and problems, as I feel now. And I don’t at all feel ready. This could be a tough winter. Hopefully the news and the analysts that inform the media are wrong. But hope isn’t enough to survive on if they are not wrong.