lokalgood

I grew up with a fire crackling away in our living room most every night from November through March (back when winter was cold). It was part of a nightly ritual – Dad get’s home from work, kids run to greet, I play bartender and make him a bourbon and soda, my mother a gin and tonic. Whip up a fire, a few minutes of gab on the day ensue, before heading into the kitchen for dinner. On weekends the fire might run the whole way through. Nothing better for a young lad than the Saturday aggression release of chopping kindling with the hatchet. Or satisfying your pyromaniac leanings with that opening blaze when you first light your layer cake of paper, kindling, firewood and various leavings from the day’s mail.

Haven’t figured out how to regularly recreate these rituals in today’s mad world, but does my soul plenty of good when we do. So it’s worth the investment to keep the fireplace safe and functioning well. Helps first to understand the basics of your fireplace. Good post on that at local blog GWSlept here. For professional care and feeding of our little flame holder, we use Del Ray’s own Rooftop Chimney Sweeps. When we moved in a ways back they did some work for us to get the chimney operating and have been our source for regular clean ups ever since. Last year we had a little incident with the old damper a couple days before a big party for which a fire was a must. They responded immediately to our last minute call for help (despite the heavy early winter work load) and put us back to rights just before the holiday revelers arrived.

Now if I could just find a reliable firewood provider. Anyone?

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