From the Homesteading Journal . . . chimney sweep update

. . . . Peanut went into heat, and is now bred for a March due date.  She's so funny when in heat too. I heard her crying and crying and asked my daughter what was wrong with her.  Dumb question.  My daughter said that Peanut will flirt with Orion and even lay her head on the top of the fence to woo him.  So funny.  Misty will be next. (don't forget to click on "read more" to read more)

. . . . bottled my homemade vanilla extract (labels designed by my son).


. . . . brought in my rosemary plants for the winter (basil died from the frost we had).

. . . canned my very first "reduced sugar" jam (pear) and can't wait to try it. 

. . . visited the organic tea store, and brought home teas, kelp powder and cardamom pods.  Oh, and some organic cocoa powder.

. . . took one barn door off this barn (getting torn down so we are reusing parts of it to repair the other two barns).  It was not an easy task - rusty wheels and a very large door.

The four of us lifted the door onto horses, so Hubby could cut the door to the right size, and add a new support board on the backside.

 . . . made a few adjustments.  These barns were built in the 1930's.

. . . and we put the door on this barn.  This barn has always had one door, and we realized that the power supply box was open to the elements.  We pushed the existing door all the way over, then four of us put the recycled barn door on the track.  See another smaller door laying on the ground?  If we cannot reuse it as well, we will take it apart, reuse the wood, and the track wheels on it. 

. . . chimney sweep arrived today.    I need to go visit my Dad and give him a hug and kiss.  He always told me I had good instincts, and that I should trust them. We already had the chimney inspected a few weeks ago, and they told us our piping was rotted and quoted us $650.00 to replace it, after collecting $109.00 to do the sweep and inspection.  My "feelers" told me that there was something funny about these guys, and by funny I mean fraud.  I got a bad feeling immediately when they walked in, saw so many red flags while they were here.  I then explained it all to Hubby (who thought I was nuts), but felt the repair was unnecessary as well.  They told us the stove was a "good" stove and the chimney on the roof looked great.  

This time, the second chimney sweep didn't need to sweep.  He used a  flashlight to look inside the stove (come to think of it, the last sweep did not use one).  Today, he found that our wood stove is cracked from the bottom to the top.  It's so evident, and you would not see it without a light on it.  He said the piping was fine, however, we need about 2 more feet on the roof.  Oh, and they didn't charge me $179.00 as stated.  They charged $85 for the inspection (because there was no need to do the sweep). He did say that it would only cost us another $100 to $150.00 to replace all the piping if we decided to do it with a new stove.  Which he only recommended so that we can elbow it, and move the stove back on the hearth (it's really too far forward anyway).

So...if we had trusted the first chimney sweep, and spent $650.00 to replace the pipe, it would have been a waste of our money.  Considering it was never needed, and now we find out our stove is no good to burn at all.

Anyone have about $3,000.00 they don't know what to do with? Ugh. Sigh....