Chimney and deer

This morning I decided to clean my wood stove's chimney pipe. Or I should say, the pipe that leads to the house's brick chimney.

From the photo you can see that my wood stove is away from any wall and the pipe is close to level for a section. This relatively level section gets the ash buildup. I checked today and this section of the pipe was half clogged with ash. I guess I have been burning plenty of firewood the past few months.

So I got dirty this morning taking the pipe apart, then outside to clean the ash out of the pipe.

The temperature was 14 F,and this being a metal pipe, the pipe quickly got cold. Ergo... I had very cold fingers by the time I was done cleaning the ash from the pipe, in addition to dirty fingers.

After the cleaning the fire was easier to get going and seemed to burn more intensely. Guess the extra room for the smoke to leave the wood stove helped.

Deer

There are plenty of deer around. The snow captures their tracks well as I see they have checked out my yard and garden. They even found the carrot tops under the snow in the garden from when I dug the carrots before it snow. Those deer must have a great sense of smell that they could find the tops under all that snow.

The snow is messing with their routine. I have seen deer in the middle of the day, and other times during daylight.

Partridges

The Hungarian partridges are still about. I am not sure if all 14 are still here as they fly off when they see me. The snow is too deep for them to run away quickly. I have seen their tracks in the paths I have shoveled in the corral and around the barn.

Pie

I baked another apple pie today. My third meal of the day is a piece of apple pie and a piece of pumpkin pie. Between the lack of exercise and all this pie I am sure I am gaining weight.