Chimney sweep...

A few days ago, Daddy built a fire.  Sissy was downstairs taking a nap and came upstairs complaining she couldn't breathe because her room was filled with smoke!  When I went down to get her a book I couldn't believe all of the smoke!  It practically filled her room, you truly couldn't breathe down there! 

 So, daddy messed with the fireplace and finally got the smoke to go up the chimney!  We shoved towels around the basement door and sissy slept upstairs.  The next morning, I called a chimney sweep and they came out the following afternoon. 

The first year we lived here we used the fireplace frequently. The second year we didn't use it at all because of the twins.  The third year we rarely used it.  Towards the end of this past summer I noticed bee's were getting in the house, so daddy climbed up to the chimney and noticed there were hornets in it.  I opened up the fireplace door and could actually here them!!  Talk about scary!  So, daddy decided to light a fire and smoke them out.  This made the hornets so angry that they started coming into the house through the cracks around the fireplace!  It was aweful!!  Looking back it was probably a funny site to see me and daddy chasing a bunch of bee's with flip flops trying to kill them!

Anywhoo, the chimney sweeps came out and cleaned out our chimney and fireplace.  He has been doing this for 18 years.  He found a hornets nest in our chimney that was the biggest one he had ever seen!  He said it was as big in diameter as the chimney, and 2 feet long!  Here is a picture of some of the nest he pulled out (you can see where it was burned by the fire!):

 

We also had 3rd degree creosote?  Anyways, the rest of the nest fell down the pipe and they had to pull it, and a TON of hornets, out from the bottom in order to vacuum and finish cleaning.  He said they built up in there because we hadn't been using it.  He also said it has been a really long time since it had been cleaned, if it had ever been cleaned!

It is now safe again to build a fire and get cozy with a blanket, cup of hot chocolate (my favorite) and a good book!  Thank you Mr. Chimney Sweep :)

Talk to ya soon...