Ignorance, Sore Muscles and Soot

I am back in my home after several days of vacation. It was great to be gone for a while and to have an opportunity to reconnect with friends.

I came back sleep deprived, with sore muscles (walleyball,) and completely ignorant about what was happening in the world. I do not think I saw more than a minute's worth of television for the entire time I was gone and did nothing more than check email. I have a lot of catching up to do.

My plan was to get back into blogging as soon as I got home but I ran into another problem when I reached my house.

One of the negatives with burning wood for primary heat is that all the smoke has to go somewhere. While I was gone there was a creosote fall in my chimney and the chimney became blocked. (I clean out the chimney prior to the winter burning season but developed the block anyway.) So, when I got back inside my house on Sunday evening the house was filled with smoke.

I spent part of Sunday late night on top of my roof with burning eyes (thankfully no snow) trying to clear an opening for the furnace exhaust. I got it cleared enough so that the chimney began to draft once again, but had to finish up the job today. It is sooty and stinky job, and I am, well, sooty and stinky.

I hope to catch up on things a little better tomorrow.