Another Fireplace Snafu

I think we finally have it right.  It took some doing.  Last night we lit a fire.  We (thought) we had the flue open, the flue fan (installed last year, see here) was on.  But wouldn't you know it - smokiness.  We figured maybe we needed some sort of "turbo-booster" in the flue to propel more air out.  I dashed off an email to the fireplace guy (who ended up responding almost right away, good guy, that one), but then the smokiness got really bad, ending with a scary comedy of errors where Paul had to get the fireplace log out into the snow in a metal tub (don't ask).  Then Paul was testing the flue, trying to figure out what on earth was wrong.  Well since it has been gajillion degrees below freezing here, the flue had frozen shut (our first clue should have been that the flue fan did not sound very loud, even on high, which we now know means - it isn't open!).  Once Paul had tugged the flue chain several times, it finally opened up -we knew because the fan sounded loud, about the same time we got an email back from Fireplace Guy suggesting that very thing.

Today I was very brave, and asked Paul to light another fire before he left with the kids to go see his mom.  I was contemplating doing some quiet journaling after a very busy morning away from the house.  I really wanted to sit by the fire on this freezing cold day, with a cup of tea, and a chance to work in a new journal I got (more on that later).  All was well!!  No smokiness, a beautiful fire, and I enjoyed my respite.

And I captured a nice picture of Tyler 

in front of the fire right after it was lit.