My fire – a morning chore that’s not such a chore.

How I make the fire every morning (when it’s cold of course).

Now the colder weather is drawing upon us, I light a fire every morning. I hunker down in the main room of the house and write, – either on my computer or longhand – I crochet, or, on the less frequent occasions these days, peruse Facebook. Because of the fire in the multi-fuel stove, the room is toasty all day, whatever the temperature is in rest of the house.

When I was a child we had a coal fire. My grandmother had a coal fire and one of my aunts had one. I learned how to start a fire quite early on. That came in handy when we moved into our own house. Hubby was a miner and therefore could get free coal from the mine where he worked - don’t worry, he didn’t have to load it into his car and bring it home without anyone seeing, it was a national thing. Every miner had the opportunity of free coal allowance, it was one of the benefits of working in the ‘pit’ – most took advantage of it, hence my grandmother and aunt’s coal fires.

My kids have never had to learn how to make a fire because when their dad left the mine and the coal system got old and failed (dumping filthy water into the living room), we had the coal fire taken out and a new, cleaner system put in.

As I explained in a previous post, I requested a new multi-fuel burner and it saves us money hand over fist!

As you can see, the fire is let out overnight and the ashes are cold by the time I get up.

It’s dusty and dirty but doesn’t take long to ‘fettle it’ as grandma used to say. Cleaning the glass is a filthy job, but being able to see the flames is lovely and makes for a cosier atmosphere, especially at night when the lights are off. You can only wash the glass when it’s cold (makes sense).

Taking out the ashes is only necessary every few days (sometimes four). I save the wood ash for the garden, plenty of nutrients you see. Potash is great for potatoes.
Solid fuel (phurnacite) ash is not good for the garden because it contains sulphur. Surprisingly, the ash from the solid fuel needs to be taken out every day, there is far more collected than by burning wood. Although, the advantage of the solid fuel is that it will stay in overnight if you close all the vents.

Laying the kindling is a matter of scraps of cardboard (insides of kitchen roll, toilet roll etc) on top of paper with slivers of wood and bark on top of that.

I save scraps of bark and slivers of wood when sorting out the woodpile, it makes great kindling, lights easily and there’s no chopping – win-win!

Once the paper has burned away, the kindling should be nicely lit and you can put on a couple of thinner branches or logs – not too much, the chimney needs to be hot enough to draw the fire and dense wood can overwhelm it and put it out (very frustrating).

Once they are going, the next log can be put in place, the bottom closed and the vent adjusted to keep the fire going, putting out the optimum amount of heat. If it’s a blustery day but not too cold, the vent will need to be more closed because the chimney will draw the fire and cause it to burn faster and therefore hotter.

Wood fires benefit from a top vent and coal prefers the bottom vent being open. Also, wood is better on embers and ashes, whereas the solid fuel becomes stifled and can ‘suffocate’ if the ash isn’t raked through.

If you do get a wood burner or multi fuel burner (both wood and solid fuel) get to know your appliance. It benefits the home if you’re not blazing all your wood away, sending the heat up through the chimney, rather than into the room.
Don't mix the fuels though. Either wood OR coal, never both.

My little fire can take the chill off the whole house or make the living room toasty, depending on what we’re doing throughout the day. Someone with a chill or a cold would benefit greatly from the door being closed, served with hot, homemade soup and pampered – I suspect that will be hubby this weekend… he started with Man-flu last night…