Wood heat is some of the best!

Hi guys,

This is Corey checking in (Kelly's husband) and I am honored to write for Modern Earth Design today!

This is the time of year when many of us are enjoying the heat from our fireplaces and wood stoves. It's very important that you clean your chimney once a year to reduce the risk of a chimney fire. We recently did some chimney cleaning and I am going to show you how to do yours!

The tools needed are a chimney brush with extendable attachments (not the one on a rope - they aren't very practical ) which can be purchased at your local hardware store. Also you will need a ladder, flashlight, utility knife, interchangeable screw driver (in case you have a screw down arrestor or chimney cap ), Heat rated fireplace silicone, caulk gun, wire brush, and a "red devil" or "hyde' style knife to help pop the arrestor cap.

As you can see there is a lot of cresote buildup on the arrestor cap from one year of burning. This cresote is a chemical buildup that can be very flammable if left inside your chimney. First we remove the arrestor cap by breaking the seal of the black flammable caulk around the cap by "scoring"it with a utility knife and then gently wedging it free with the hyde knife. Once the cap is off you can quickly clean the excess cresote with the wire brush.

Next take the chimney brush and add attachments as needed according to the depth of your chimney. NOTE: be careful to tighten your attachments because when you're moving the brush up and down sometimes the threaded attachments can fall apart and you will get the brush stuck! Trust me - I warned you:-)

Once you've tightened the brush attachments insert the bristled end of the brush into the chimney opening and push it all the way to the bottom of your fireplace opening inside your home. One of the kid's or your spouse can really help by being a "spotter" to see where the brush begins to show through the fireplace opening. Continue a "sweeping" motion up and down through the chimney walls bottom-to-top repeatedly until there's no major cresote buildup evident inside. Shine your flashlight down the chimney to get a good look at your work.

This is what a clean chimney looks like inside & outside.

Next place the clean arrestor cap on and screw it down, or in our case re-seal it with the heat rated fireplace silicone. You will need to shop vav or sweep out the cresote buildup that fell down into your fireplace when you brushed it out.

Other than that you're ready for another year of burning!

The House With A Broken Heart

Whenever I go for a walk I normally pass by a certain house in my neighborhood that I call the "Spooky House".

On this certain occasion my daughter was with me and I said to her, "That house is spooky and creepy."  She turned back and said...

"Mommy, I think that house has a broken heart."
It hit me when she said that.  How many times have I looked and judged and not have taken the opportunity to have empathy.  She taught me a valuable lesson that day.

She referred me to this poem:

The House With Nobody In It ~ Joyce Kilmer

Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black
I suppose I passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them for free.

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in a store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and shutters falling apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor house is a house with a broken heart.