No more cozy fire

The fireplace hasn't been cleaned in ages, if ever, so I called a chimney cleaning place. Also, lately when we have a fire, the house gets quite smokey. We end up closing the doors part way and letting the fire die out.

After a look-see the chimney man said the Heatilator insides are all rusted out (which is why there is smoke in the house when we have a fire) and expensive to fix. We either stop using it, or get an insert.

It cost $49.95 for chimney man to tell me this.

Did I mention that we just bought a cord of wood last week?

By the way, when chimney man came to the door, the first thing that popped into my mind was the image of Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins" when he is the chimney sweep. This fellow could have been part of the cast. Except for he wasn't sooty yet and a little older.