Originally Posted by
caleb
When I woke up this morning, the temp was somewhere in the teens below zero. I think it'll be Monday afternoon before we're really above zero again. I nixed any thought of skiing this weekend.
Instead, I cleaned our chimney before starting a fire. I did it once last summer, but I know I hadn't gotten all the way to the top with the 24' kit. We've burned a little over two cords this winter, and I was having visions of creosote all over the place.
Fortunately, I ended up getting nothing more than about a tea cup full of fluffy grey ash out of the entire 26' chimney. Nothing flakey/black/shiny. This gives me some confirmation that we're burning cleanly and are fine just cleaning the flue once a year in the late spring when we clean out the stove for the season.
Also, on the topic of kindling and fire-starting, I've been experimenting with the top-down method a bit this winter, and I've been having good results.
For kindling, I've been taking a square split that's about 16" long and maybe 4"x4", and splitting it once into two 2x4" rectangles. I've been using the circular saw to then zip those splits into four square sections, and then split them down into rectangles that are about 2x2x4" with the axe. Cut up small like this, a box of kindling lasts a long time.
My top-down start is pretty simple. Lay two splits together as a base, and build a little log cabin of the kindling rectangles. Light a firestarter, and set it on top of the log cabin. Amazingly, it works.
...snip...
Once it's going, I shut the door and go make coffee before coming back to throw a third split on top as the log cabin collapses. There's very little smoke, and it's always worked for me.
If anyone needs me today, I'll be here, in front of the fire.