Okay, here's the story...We were just sitting on the couch minding our own business, enjoying some popcorn and the peace and quiet of sleeping kids and country life while watching the news. Oh, and we had a nice fire going in the fireplace 'cause, well, it was a cold winter night. Kinda sounds like a Norman Rockwell painting doesn't it??? However, our peace and tranquility was short lived when we saw a huge amber glow out the back window. Our exact words cannot be reprinted here because this is a family blog but, feel free to insert any explative you want because I'm sure it was said by at least one of us. After a brief, and I mean brief look outside and up to our chimney I grabbed the phone headed upstairs for the kids and Rick did what he did the last time this happened (Yup, this is a part two for those of you who didn't know) which had to do with the fire extinguisher, the flue and I don't know what else with the fireplace (I wasn't going anywhere near it)...whatever he did saved us from a lot of damage (thanks, honey!). It is NOT easy to wake two kids from a sound sleep at 10:00 at night while dialing 911 but, we managed and we all got out fine. The kids had been through this before and the dog did a great job of staying right by my side the whole time. The kids were really calm but, I think it's because they were still asleep. One nice thing about living on this road is that we have two firefighters that live really close by (Hi Earl, Hi Micah!) however, on this night they were in town doing training...five minutes seems like hours when flames are coming out of your chimney! The first thing everyone said when they got here was "weren't we just here for the same thing?"...yes, you were, two years ago and yes, our house is only four years old. This isn't really the best way to get to know people in your town but, alas we do now know the fire department a little too well. We really never thought this would happen again, we thought we were doing everything right...seasoned wood, cleaning the chimeny every year, etc... but, OBVIOUSLY we were wrong! So, take a look at the picture above because that is the only way anyone will be seeing a fire in our fireplace for who knows how long, if ever. We are having an "expert" come and investigate our nightmare 'er chimney and we'll evalute the situation after we hear what he has to say but, believe me when I tell you that I will be doing searches on the cost of converting to gas (but, not without sadness). Let me end this by thanking the LeSueur fire department, Le Sueur police and county sheriff for their support, their jokes at the end of our ordeal were just as needed as their re-assurance that everything would be alright...thanks! Also, thanks to my parents and our neighbors (Hi Tami, Hi Becky!) for offering a place to stay if we needed it!
Epilogue: We had no real damage just the cap to the chimney and it smelled a little smoky for a day (burnt popcorn smells worse). The firefighters didn't even track in dirty footprints...how is that possible????
P.S. Thank you to Dr. Olson, DDS for fixing my chipped tooth that happend right before the fire...what a crappy day!
