Green Building and Sustainable Development: January 30, 2017
“Kim interviews Justin Bailey, owner of Bailey’s Chimney Cleaning and Repair, northern New Mexico’s premier chimney service company and a proud member of SFAHBA. Look for Justin’s booth at the Santa Fe Home Show March 11/12 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.”
Building a fire to keep warm is a primal, instinctive bit of work.
There is some kindling to be chopped, some paper to be crumpled, some wood to be laid out, a match or a lighter light. The photo above is the wood stove at my house taken immediately after I lit tonight's fire. This appliance, a Pacific Energy Super 27 wood burning stove, is my primary source of heat in the winter.
Usually I build a fire once a day, in the evening time. A few logs in the stove will burn for many hours. In the morning there are still a few live embers in the firebox and the house is still nice and warm. On a normal morning, I'll usually let the embers die out. But when its cold, like around 15 below zero like we've had on a few recent mornings, I'll lay some new kindling, a couple logs and some paper over the embers and get the fire going again.
Building a fire in my wood stove keeps me feeling connected with an elemental part of life. The work involved is a kind of meditation. Its one of those actions that brings me to a place where it seems like the world as it is coincides with the world as it should be, if that makes sense.
Thanks, Prometheus.