Last week our friend David invited Paul and me for a X Mass dinner at Rawhides in Stenen, with Carol, Melva, Graham and Sharon.
It was SO much fun. We all had to bring a little present, and then we would draw numbers. Number 1 could start with pick a present. Then number 2 could choose a present, OR 'steal' the present of number one and so fort. What a fun game!
The food was SOOOOO good and with great company it made it the perfect evening.
Thank you David for this amazing and wonderful X Mass present. It was awesome!
After some snow and beautiful hoar frost, the cold came. Bbrrrrrr, it WAS cold. Minus 30 C during the night. It only lasted a couple of days, then it warmed up again to a milder minus 17 C to minus 12 C during the day.
X -mass eve was great. Paul came over on his skidoo. Hahaha, did the horses ever freaked out. But I went outside and calmed them and rewarded them with a treat when they were standing calm and looking at the skidoo. Soon they got it and just looked at Paul who turned the skidoo off.
Paul asked me to go for a ride with him on the skidoo. Hm...I am not so much a fan of speed, but he promised to drive slow and just on the driveway. The horses walked /ran with us to their end of the pasture and were just looking at us. I called to them it was all just fine. We drove back to the cabin and the horses stayed at the end of their pasture for a while. It was fun to sit in the back of the skidoo, but it is definitely not my thing. Hahaha, even he went slow, I thought it was still too fast and so noisy! Wow! Hahaha. But it still was fun.
Paul helped to bring in the water bottles that I got from the well. Such a great help!
We had some supper and then together we picked a tree for him to take home. We drove home with the truck.
Once home we decorated the tree together. After we went to drive around town to look at all the beautiful X-Mass lights people had put up. It was so much fun.
The moon was almost full and on our way back to the cabin we had a great view at the farmers fields.
Paul went back home again on his skidoo. Brave as it was really really cold already with the minus 38 C wind chill. But he got home safe.
On X mass day Paul came to have Xmass breakfast together that I had put together on a nice decorated table. We exchanged presents, and Paul really spoiled me! He gave me a Eco fan for on the stove. This fan will start turning as soon some heat comes from the stove. No electricity needed, it runs on heat from the stove. Awesome! He also gave me lots of chocolates, a hatched and a wonderful splitting axe. And to top it all, he got me a emergency flash light, that even can charge my phone!! WOW! Thank you so much Paul! What a wonderful presents.
After breakfast I took care of the animals, and then we went to Carol’s place to celebrate a potluck X-Mass with a bunch of friends. It was wonderful. What a fun time! Lots of good food, great company and the weather was great. Very cold but lots of sunshine. I went outside with Carol and two other friends to say hi to the horses. The hoar frost decorated the trees, bushes and fences. It was totally walking in a winter wonderland.
After this great afternoon Paul and I drove back to the cabin. The sky was clear and there was a beautiful full moon. I think the last time there was a full moon with X-Mass was in the early 70’s. So very special to experience this.
Once back in the cabin, Paul helped to start the fire in the stove. Hm....a lot of smoke came out of the door of the stove. It got so bad, we had to open up the door and wave the smoke out of the cabin. Then the fire was going good, and we got the smoke out. Strange but oh well. No smoke anymore now so that was good.
Paul went home and I went to bed soon.
The next morning lit the fire. It took a while before the fire took and smoke came out of the door again. Finally I got the fire going, and got most of the smoke out of the cabin.
I went outside to water and feed the horses. Then the horses spooked from a sharp sound coming from the cabin. My smoke alarm went off. I went inside and it was full of smoke again. I went outside and checked the chimney. I noticed there was smoke coming out of the seems beside the cap. It didn’t look good.
I went back inside, and closed the damper immediately to kill the fire. Then I took the new flash light Paul gave me, and checked the chimney pipe inside and there it was, smoke coming from the seems. Oh boy. I got really scared of course.
What was going on??? I texted Sheri, told her what was going on. She came over as soon she could and then we called Brad, the handyman who installed my stove. He would come over as soon he could. A few hours.
I went with Sheri to her place. Paul came later to pick up Scruffy. The cabin would get cold with no fire and outside temperatures of minus 25 C. The cats would be ok.
Brad came later in the afternoon and cleaned my chimney. He took the cap off and showed me how plugged the mesh wire, that was around the cap, was with soot.
After the cap was off, it was safe enough to make a fire again and I could warm up the cabin as hot as possible for the cats. For the night I stayed at Sheri’s. She was such a wonderful help and comfort during this stressful event. Thank you so much, Sheri, for helping me and being there for me. You are a great friend!
The next morning we went to the cabin and Sheri started the fire for me. In no time she had a good fire going. It was minus 4 C in the cabin and outside it was minus 25C. Not too bad really. But it took a long time to warm the cabin up again.
The cats were very happy I was back, and they were not cold at all.
Paul brought Scruffy back later in the afternoon, and she had a good run and roll in the yard, also happy to be back.
Yesterday morning I had a professional coming out to clean my chimney and stove, and do a check up. It’s all safe now. I had removed the mesh wire on his advice. That way I can keep using the chimney sweep log every two months, and the particles that come loose, will be able to go out from the cap freely.
In the fall he will come back to sweep the chimney again and clean the stove, so I will be good for the winter again.
This was a very scary experience but I got through it. Learned a lot again.
You can imagine, once the stove was all checked and cleaned up, how happy I was when I lit the fire and didn’t have to feel worried.
Also I am happy I got good smoke alarms. If it had happened at night, at least I would have waken up from those.
Yesterday Sheri asked me if I needed any firewood. Ben was cutting some standing dead trees and cut them up in small logs.
So I went over there and we all had a huge load of good white birch firewood.
Thanks Ben, for cutting and hauling the wood.
That will keep my cabin warm for a while!