Fired Up

[kevin_standlee]

Lisa and I went to Reno for grocery shopping last night shortly after midnight, as we do when we can manage it because it's less crowded. The temperature outside was around 4°C, and maybe colder, as Lisa found when she tried to clean the window of the Astro while I refueled. The liquid was freezing on the windshield. My hands got so cold that after finishing refueling, I pulled away from the pumps and went into the Pilot station to get a coffee, mostly to use as a hand warmer.

Both Lisa and I took most of today off, retreating to bed to stay warm and at least in my case to deal with the not completely recovered fatigue from the China trip.

Early this evening, with the temperature in the living room down to 15°C, it was time to take action. Lisa brought wood from the main box to the porch, and I set to building the first fire of the season.



As usual, the first fire of the season takes a while to get going, as the fireplace and the rocks around it are very cold and they tend to suck all of the heat out of the fire; however, eventually, I got it going.

It will take a while to get things warmed up at it takes time to pump heat into the rocks, but once it's had a chance to absorb that heat, it should keep the living room much more comfortable.

Lisa made us some nice warm chicken soup for dinner. It helped warm us up from the inside as the fireplace tried to warm us from the outside.

Comments

[a_cubed]

When I was a kid we had a coal-fired stove not completely dissimilar to this one (not that close, though). To get it going we had a very hot electric air blower. Like a big hair dryer, but five times bigger and way hotter.