Sunday, October 11, 2009

Stove pipes and wood smoke


Friday I spent the day replacing the stove pipe at Patterson House… The stove was smoking, and wouldn’t draw (a term meaning the smoke goes up the chimney, and not into the room) I replaced the sheet metal flue… taking it down, then replacing it with sheet metal off the shelf replacement flue…. It took 7 hours…

Stove flues are one of those things which are simple, but can be complicated… and while once common are now not… the local hardware store carries the basic stuff, not in a great variety… There are a couple tricks to doing it well… one being a special tool to crimp the ends to make them fit together… I have a pair… Our blacksmith has a cone mandrel, using it allowed me to lock the seams…

It was a fight, I got dirty, I cut my hands... The first fix didn’t take, but the second did, and it went together and now works… 7 hours later…

This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11) is Harvest Festival… People picking corn, people buying pumpkin, listening to music, doing crafts, and such…

Saturday I spend my time in the house… By 5:00 on Sunday we had entertained 576 guests in the house… Sunday we had 548… The total is the highest attendance since 1998… I’m tired… The house is dirty… but the stove worked…

The stove is important… its iconic, black and nickel, containing fire and filling the house with the smells of wood smoke and food cooking…

On other things… The son graduated from US Navy Search and Rescue swimmer school (SAR) and is back in Everett Washington. Its pretty cool… we are proud. Tina surprised by and cleaned the gutters… very good considering that we expect rain tomorrow… lots of rain…

Its now about 9:00 pm Sunday, I am at home… I have a fire going… first of the season… I have a book waiting….

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