Getting cleaned up for work

Sorry about the duplication, This got accidently published in the wrong blog....




I had to do some things this weekend that I really didn't want to. The weather has been been getting colder and it would nice to light a fire in the kitchen stove. But when I looked at the condition of the stove pipe, I knew I couldn't get away with running the stove before cleaning the chimney and stove.

In the stove I found about an inch deep of fly ash under the hob as well as under the oven. No creosote, though.

The meat of the job was cleaning the chimney, though. Not a job I relished.

The chimney comes out of the center of the Elle, the middle of the ridge line. Just guessing, but I think the ridge line is about 30 feet above ground. Thirty feet up in a 45 degree slate roof isn't really my favorite place to spend a Sunday afternoon. I am not fond of heights without a safety. I've done some rock climbing, but always with a safety. I didn't much like standing on that peak with nothing to hold onto but the chimney. This kind of work it pays to do slowly and careful.

That's a pail full of creosote we shoveled out of the thimble. I bet things flow a little better without that inch of crust caking the inside of the stove pipe.

Clump of fall pictures

This is some pasture we didn't seed after the logging for comparison.

This is a similar area that got a pasture mix. You can see the well established clover amongst the tall grass. It was seeded in early august. I think it is well established and will easily survive the winter

An apple tree a friend gave us. He gave us three apples and three pears. Hope they survive the winter. Its a little late, close to freezing, but they should be fine, I think.

Chickens and guineas eating windfall apples from the tree by the house. A shame that we didn't pick them first, but we got several bushels of apples for the animals out of it. And we still got enough eating apples off the tree to keep us a long while.

Three Cherubs sitting down for breakfast in the kitchen. Not sure which is the odd man out though...

Who knew mommy had a construction site in her garden?