xkvator
February 17th, 2005, 09:59 AM
WG telling about cooking in the fireplace brought back old memories - the aroma of food cooking over a wood fire and the house toasty warm makes me want to light a fire right now..........UNTIL the memory of my wife yelling "what the hell happened?" comes vividly back to me
it was Christmas Day - 1983 - below zero/big snowfall/ roads impassable - i had an 18 wheeler back then...got home the day before...tired from driving 20 hr. days...the fire was glowing...had just finished eating the great stew cooked in the fireplace.....planned to make mountain pies later that evening.
Wife said she was going to walk 1/2 mile up the road to neighbors farm to deliver presents. i needed sleep...so i threw some wood AND a couple big lumps of coal on the fire, which i had done many times...then i laid down on the couch and.......ZZZ...ZZZ......then,i felt my daughter-8-shaking my arm - "DADDY...why is it smokey in the living room"
i jump up...still half asleep...not sure if it's my eyes that are foggy or......NO, there's smoke coming out from around the fireplace doors...WHAT'S GOING ON!!! i'm trying to think - still half asleep -WATER... get WATER... throw some water on it - BAD IDEA - soot billowed out into the living room...AND THEN.....wife walked in! i'm trying to figure out what went wrong...and then i remembered...the past summer i put a piece of screen door material in the top of the flue to keep carpenter bees out that were coming down the chimney and getting into the house.
running down to the garage 200+' away and carrying a ladder back through 18-24" of snow is a lot harder than you think!
climbing onto the roof in a blizzard with a foot of snow on it is no fun...ripped that soot clogged screen out so the soot stopped coming in the living room....I could'nt hear her real well, but I think i heard my wife say...HOPE.....FALL....BREAK NECK.....oh yea, she must have said '' I hope you DON'T fall and break your neck......Hmmm...it may be safer up here than going back into the house - no, i'll freeze without a jacket.
She spent the rest of Christmas Day scrubbing walls and ceilings, etc.
haven't lit that fireplace since...
it was Christmas Day - 1983 - below zero/big snowfall/ roads impassable - i had an 18 wheeler back then...got home the day before...tired from driving 20 hr. days...the fire was glowing...had just finished eating the great stew cooked in the fireplace.....planned to make mountain pies later that evening.
Wife said she was going to walk 1/2 mile up the road to neighbors farm to deliver presents. i needed sleep...so i threw some wood AND a couple big lumps of coal on the fire, which i had done many times...then i laid down on the couch and.......ZZZ...ZZZ......then,i felt my daughter-8-shaking my arm - "DADDY...why is it smokey in the living room"
i jump up...still half asleep...not sure if it's my eyes that are foggy or......NO, there's smoke coming out from around the fireplace doors...WHAT'S GOING ON!!! i'm trying to think - still half asleep -WATER... get WATER... throw some water on it - BAD IDEA - soot billowed out into the living room...AND THEN.....wife walked in! i'm trying to figure out what went wrong...and then i remembered...the past summer i put a piece of screen door material in the top of the flue to keep carpenter bees out that were coming down the chimney and getting into the house.
running down to the garage 200+' away and carrying a ladder back through 18-24" of snow is a lot harder than you think!
climbing onto the roof in a blizzard with a foot of snow on it is no fun...ripped that soot clogged screen out so the soot stopped coming in the living room....I could'nt hear her real well, but I think i heard my wife say...HOPE.....FALL....BREAK NECK.....oh yea, she must have said '' I hope you DON'T fall and break your neck......Hmmm...it may be safer up here than going back into the house - no, i'll freeze without a jacket.
She spent the rest of Christmas Day scrubbing walls and ceilings, etc.
haven't lit that fireplace since...
