Fall Chores - Cleaning the chimney

With the change to cooler wetter weather, it is time to do all those small chores that are needed to get ready for cold weather. The ones that need to be done, the ones we all put off until we absolutely must do them. Today it was time to do one of those chores. 

Cleaning the stove and chimney. It isn’t a job I hate, but it isn’t my favorite either. It is just something that needs to be done and carries a great sense of satisfaction when it is done. The job doesn’t even take a terribly long time to accomplish, but by the time it is done I look like I had a fight with a cold campfire pit. I am black from one end to the other. 

I have had some years that this job has been a disaster. One year part of the pipe fell when I was trying to get it out and the whole of my living room was dusted in soot. One year a wind came up and blew down the chimney pipe dumping all of the stuff up in the pipe down on the floor. But this year it went like clockwork. Although my feet were black, my hands were black and I am sure my face had streaks.  I know the chimney was clean. We can start a fire in the stove and warm the house. I am glad that job is done. 

It brings back a memory of cleaning a chimney when I was a kid. Our house was heated with was called a “coal oil” furnace. After many years we noticed that the old brick chimney was sagging and needed to be taken down and replaced with a stove pipe. When it came time to clean the soot out of the lower part of the old brick chimney someone came up with the idea of using the vacuum cleaner. 

We didn’t have shop vacuums back then, but my family owned a rather innovative vacuum called a Rainbow. It didn’t have a bag or a filter, it used water to catch the dirt, dust and hair. We loved it, It did a great job. Except…

When we stuck the hose up into that chimney hole that oily soot from the old stove hit the water in that vacuum and went right out the back, blowing oily black soot all over the house. It was absolutely awful. I screamed, Mom shut the vacuum down and looked around in shock. Then we started laughing, literally laughing. I guess we figured we could either laugh or cry and laughing just made more sense. 

The weather lets us know when to get the fall chores done, it is time to get prepared for the resting months. Long evenings by the fire, a warm fire in the morning with the coffee pot perking away on the stove. I am looking forward to it.

Caramel Apple Jam

3½ cups chopped apples

¾ cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

1½ tablespoons lemon juice

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

Combine apples, lemon juice, sugars and spices in a pot, cook until the apples soften and the jam thickens, 20-30 minutes. Stir often. Ladle into jars. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or water-bath half pints 10 minutes for long term storage. Use on toast, biscuits, pancakes, or on ice cream.