Saturday, December 25, 1976

Our worst Christmas! We had a big scare when about noon our woodstove started to huff and puff, drawing very intensely. Betty and Gus, who were outside, noted a great cloud of smoke pouring from the chimney, while inside the stove pipes began to glow in spots. These spots moved as as burning progressed. At this point I shut all drafts. The hottest spots seemed to be near the chimney and below the bend just above the stove. much snapping of expanding metal was also heard. Obviously deposits of carbon were burning inside. Inspection of the chimney from the roof showed this to be constricted to almost half its area with thick bubbly leaf-like carbon deposits. We now resolved to clean the entire system. I cleaned the chimney with a hoe and a long stick from the roof and removed the material from inside. We also took off and cleaned all the stove pipes, all of which had substantial deposits of the same material. We finished our work about 3:30- an unusual Christmas! As I write the stove is in action again.

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