Burn, Baby, Burn

As if I didn't already have enough to do.


Our new home has two wood burning fireplaces. At first I was happy, because we can keep a fire going in the winter and it doesn't cost as much to run the furnace to keep the house warm, but I'm finding that they require a lot of work.

The first day Aaron went to work and I was left to manage the fire alone wasn't pretty. I had the whole house full of smoke. I was worried one of our neighbors would stop by, with one sniff they would say," I thought you all were Mormons." Then they would add our names to the "reactivate" list. Luckily, nobody stopped by and I eventually figured out the stoves. I've become quite the little fire starter, if I do say so myself. Those years at girl's camp paid off.

There are advantages to stoves. All of our junk mail makes great kindling. I don't have to shred important documents. (They get turned to ash). We throw away less garbage because any paper gets burned and plastic get recycled by the city. I've always wanted to have a my own blue garbage can. Now I do but,that's beside the point.


There are also disadvantages to stoves. I'm learning why they use the term "spring" cleaning. It is because after using wood burning stoves for an entire winter your house is covered in dust and a fine layer of soot. So that adds even more things I have to do come spring. In the meantime, I'll stand next to my warm fire and think how much money we're saving.

I hope it is worth it.