This is where the chimney goes into the sealing.  I expected  it to be packed full but it was only a big hand full and there were no egg fragments or bird droppings so I am guessing that the bird that did this work gave up and went elsewhere.

This is the top of the stove.

I set October 1^st aside each year to clean my stovepipe/chimney out.  This year I did not get to it until the 3^rd but the point is that the stove does not get used until the pipe is cleaned out.  The photos accompanying this post shows why it is so important to clean out the chimney.  I repeat the cleaning out the stovepipe/chimney routine on January 1^st, just to help keep my mind at ease.  That is down from my every 2 month routine when I first got the stove.  I figure that if the pipe is bad in January I can always increase the cleaning routine.

Every year around here more than one house suffers smoke damage and some even burn down due to a faulty chimney.  By cleaning out my chimney a few times a season I get to inspect it and can correct any problems before they become major.

In other news the weather right now is GREAT……. cool evenings and pleasant days.  Weather Underground is saying that the temps should get into the LOW 30’s this weekend so I guess I will spend some time in the garden today.  I have some plastic that I can use to cover the plants I have out there but they won’t need to be covered until this weekend. I won’t have time to set things up then so now is the time to prepare.  I was reviewing the first frost from last year and this year the frost seems to be coming earlier.  Could be a cold winter.  I heard their going to name winter storms now……. I prefer the way folks have described the winter storms of the past, you know the Halloween storm of 1991, blizzard of 1993 that sounds dramatic, but who knows maybe I will have a T shirt that says I survived the Gandalf storm of 2013.

I will be peddling around on the property today.  I was scheduled to work today but they did not need me so yay for some unscheduled “free” time. As I said above this is a good day for the garden and to get a few chores that I have been putting off.  Its going to be a busy weekend so this unscheduled “down time” will be nice.