Good Stovekeeping

While it's not exactly warm outside, the days have turned warm enough to form a sort of false spring, allowing us to let the fire in the fireplace go almost all the way out today to allow me to clean it. I rarely have to dig ashes because the fire logs burn so cleanly, but eventually one does need to do so. Also, I much prefer the stove to be mostly cold before vacuuming around it, as setting the vacuum cleaner on fire is not something I want to do.

Somewhat to my surprise, after doing all of the cleaning and taking the ashes out to the ash can to cool for a few days before putting them into the dumpster, there were still just barely enough coals left in the fireplace that I was able to rekindle it without having to start completely from scratch. That is, those few coals, covered with some small bits of firewood, lit up quite nicely and now I have the fire going again. It does show why it is so important to totally extinguish campfires, though; a couple of coals the side of gumballs could set an entire forest ablaze under the right conditions.