Smoke Chase

Bitter cold, the girls get here tomorrow, and the stove is not drawing correctly. B came over to help out, and we cleaned the stove pipe. Still not drawing. You access the smoke chase through a little door under the oven and at the back of it there's a throat where the re-circulated gases go up the flue. It was clogged. Working from above and below we were able to break the clog apart and clean it out. Problem solved. I started a fire and we sat around, discussing literary matters over a cup of coffee until the fire was roaring. All good. High temperature in the low twenties, low of fifteen tonight, so it's good we got it figured out. In a couple of hours I have the oven heated to 450, so we should be fine for Scott and I to cook. It's supposed to warm up maybe ten degrees on Tuesday, which will be welcome. The difference between twenty and thirty degrees is a critical jump, maybe mostly psychological. Within a couple of hours the oven is hot enough to do Tandoori. An 800 pound stove heated to 600 degrees is a considerable heat source, and I have some Osage Orange logs for the late night stoking, they burn hot and long. All set, barring terrible weather, and I don't see that on the horizon. I vacuumed downstairs, a nod toward housekeeping, but if Rhea stays here, she'll probably want to vacuum my room, where she'd sleep, in my down bag, because the dust bunnies seem to be breeding up there. I sleep downstairs on the sofa all the time now, cooler in summer, and I can stoke the fire when I get up to pee in winter. It's a very comfortable sofa to sleep on, better than most beds, and I'm close to my computer, so I can tease out an occasional line. Leo, from the Cirque, is excited about doing some yard work for me. He needs the money, I need the work done, and I have the money right now. I'll be stretched a little thin, with the girls' visit, shocks and aggressive tires for the Jeep, and a new computer; but if I cut back on the sushi I should be ok. Samara calls and we finalize plans; Tuesday could be a problem, because it might snow, and that would screw up our shopping plans, but we'll cross that bridge.