The Chimney Saga, part deux

I am actually still here. My posting has been light because... I'm sick again. That old brick chimney had some surprises (or not--sometimes I think this old house is out to get me) for me in the form of all kinds of crap that I've been cleaning up and since have some small bit of respiratory discomfort. Like someone filled my lungs with styrofoam packing peanuts. Mmmm... crunchy. Uh... Anyhoo. It doesn't help that I wasn't really over that cold I had, so now I'm getting my old friend Please Remove My Sinuses Stat. So here I am, in bed with a laptop and fever. My sweet husband set up my garage-sale-find of the summer-- an awesome heater, see what we value in Michigan?-- in my bedroom and he's dealing with a particularly whiny little boy in my stead. Also, he's framing in the new chimney so that the woodstove can be moved so we can use it and be warm.

Ya know, it's funny. Well, not really funny, but ya know, funny. We've moved this stinking woodstove (actually, it's a great woodstove, but ya know.) twice since we moved here. This makes 3. Times. (most people might move their couch around. Not us. Well, we do move the couch. Everytime we move the woodstove.) And everytime, it's been COLD. We have nice, beautiful, warm weather while getting ready to move it. Then, just when it's disassembled and unusable, BAM! Cold. Last time --I shudder to think of it-- we heated with a kerosene heater for weeks... or months... I dunno, then put the chimney up on the west side of the house in a roaring west wind. It was... horrifying.

This morning, when Nathan took the chimney down from that same spot, he had to be on the roof --at the highest point, picture two stories plus and attic-- and reeeeach over the edge ever so slightly to take down the sections of pipe. Jonah looked up and saw him and began to bawl unconsolably until he came down. I kinda wanted to... So we prayed for angels. And they came, and there were no disasters.

And there was much rejoicing.

So Nathan and Enos put up the new chimney today, and Nathan is currently readying it for inspection tomorrow.

We, being law-abiding citizens (oh... is raw milk really illegal?), bought a permit to move the woodstove across the living room. And they hit us up for 75 bucks. Phoo.

Enos brought along his two little girls to play with Jonah this morning. They're so stinkin' cute. at one point, the men had to leave for a little while and left the kids with me. Then I realized that the girls don't speak any English. Hmmm... but it was fine. They seem to be able to understand most of what I say, and when they babbled (try baby-talk with a German-English combination... whew!) I just smiled and said "Mmmm-hmm!" And they thought, in baby-talk German-English, "What is up with this rather slow and mentally challenged big person, anyway?"

So here I am, being a Bad Boring Blogger and rambling about my day. Well, I plead desperate illness. Okay, not desperatly ill, just desperate not to be ill anymore.

Okay, it's not that bad. Just a warm-up for winter. And I'm whiny. So, if my connection will co-operate, I'm gonna go try to finish Sense and Sensibility on Hulu.