If you had read the prior post you will know the story of AJ putting the cover back on our chimney. It was a strange coincidence but another part of that story is later that day the dogs went crazy barking at the woodstove in our living room. Ellie was persistent and would not stop barking. She scratched at the woodstove and wanted to get at something. But we had no idea what.
Later that afternoon, while I was in the living room playing with Porter, I heard and saw the damper on the chimney pipe out of the woodstove move. It was a bit freaky and it was also the day before Halloween. I thought maybe I was just imagining and maybe it was the wind. So the next day I was doing something and came back in to the living room and AJ confirmed what I thought. We had something alive in our chimney! He had heard the scratching and seen the damper move.
On Monday, I took a video of the damper moving and it was all a bit creepy. We didn't want to open the woodstove for fear of it running out and causing chaos in our house. We didn't want to start a fire because when we bought the house a year ago we said we would need to get the chimney cleaned before we used the woodstove. We also don't want to worry about the mess and work of getting firewood. We have a wonderful gas forced air furnace, so the woodstove was not necessary for our heat source. Thus, we have never paid to have the chimney professionally cleaned and we don't want a flu fire, so no fires.
Well, the long and short of it. We left it and just dealt with the creepiness of thinking something was in our woodstove. Since AJ had put the cover back on the chimney there was no way for it to get back out so we left it. How cruel, right? Well, the moving damper has stopped and the little scratching noises have stopped so we figure it has passed. We were afraid it would stink up our house, but it doesn't seem to be all that bad. It did smell a little funny today but it may just have been my prego crazy sense of smell and thinking it was smelling bad, but it is nothing.
And since we don't want to start a fire, it is just going to stay the way it is. I am still a little creeped out to open the woodstove so we will never know what it was. By the time spring or summer comes next year and we decide to get the chimney cleaned it may be a skeleton of bones.
So for now, we will never know, but at least the chimney is covered now and this should not happen again anytime soon!
Later that afternoon, while I was in the living room playing with Porter, I heard and saw the damper on the chimney pipe out of the woodstove move. It was a bit freaky and it was also the day before Halloween. I thought maybe I was just imagining and maybe it was the wind. So the next day I was doing something and came back in to the living room and AJ confirmed what I thought. We had something alive in our chimney! He had heard the scratching and seen the damper move.
On Monday, I took a video of the damper moving and it was all a bit creepy. We didn't want to open the woodstove for fear of it running out and causing chaos in our house. We didn't want to start a fire because when we bought the house a year ago we said we would need to get the chimney cleaned before we used the woodstove. We also don't want to worry about the mess and work of getting firewood. We have a wonderful gas forced air furnace, so the woodstove was not necessary for our heat source. Thus, we have never paid to have the chimney professionally cleaned and we don't want a flu fire, so no fires.
Well, the long and short of it. We left it and just dealt with the creepiness of thinking something was in our woodstove. Since AJ had put the cover back on the chimney there was no way for it to get back out so we left it. How cruel, right? Well, the moving damper has stopped and the little scratching noises have stopped so we figure it has passed. We were afraid it would stink up our house, but it doesn't seem to be all that bad. It did smell a little funny today but it may just have been my prego crazy sense of smell and thinking it was smelling bad, but it is nothing.
And since we don't want to start a fire, it is just going to stay the way it is. I am still a little creeped out to open the woodstove so we will never know what it was. By the time spring or summer comes next year and we decide to get the chimney cleaned it may be a skeleton of bones.
So for now, we will never know, but at least the chimney is covered now and this should not happen again anytime soon!
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