Smoke!!! - Part 2 of 2

Used fire extinguishers and wheelbarrow

Now back to our riveting part to of Smoke!!! 

I ran upstairs and grabbed the first big container that I could and started filling it with water. I checked on the dog, he was still outside doing okay. I saw the cat, inside again, and scooped him up and put him in the least smoky room and locked him in. Stupid cat. The container was now full, I started walking down the steps, spill it a little bit and then threw it on the coals.

Again, another stupid thing to do, being that close to the fire the water instantly turned to steam and steam is hot! It hurt, no burns but I feel stupid about being so close. I handed the container to the Broha, he filled it up and added more to the fire until it was out. I was outside breathing fresh air again and pulling the hose back threw the window.

At that point, all the windows in the house were open, the fans were going, the fire was out and that was when the stupid heat pump kicked on. Perfect, just suck up and blow the smoke around the house for me. I hit the off button on the thermostat but for some reason, it took 3 minutes for it to stop running. Why does it do that? I have no idea.

I said hi to Teach, and we played a little. I think Teach was either stressed by this or sensed my stress because he was doing his welcome home greeting. We played a little and then Husband got home. He was of course at work this entire time because when shit gets weird or weird weather happens he has to be at work. During all of this madness, running around, I called his work three times. The first time I gave up before I could talk to him. The second time I called I was able to talk to him, and the third time after the fire was pretty much out I called back and his work told me they didn't know where he went. That was when he called me on his cell and said that he was on the way home. By then the house looked more like a misty morning, I let Teach and started to get ready for work.

As I left for work Husband took over. He worked on reattaching the pipe, cleaned the stove, cleaned the area around the stove, put a creosol log on the fire, checked all the joints connections, started to rewash some clothes that were in the basement, and got new fire extinguishers. Then like a champ, he went back to work.

Due to the chemicals that were used in the attempts to put out the fire, the house felt like it had a film over it. Mostly in the living room where the vent from the basement/stove is connected. Once I returned from work I swept the floors, and then mopped everything. The mopping was overdue anyway, but that was like an hour and a half to get it all done. The next night I dusted, wiped down the couches, and countertops. It made things feel a bit better but the house still smelled like smoke.

If the other day's excitement wasn’t enough, we got to enjoy another house clearing in the morning. This time, it was way less dramatic, but still a pain. The wood stove’s door doesn’t always latch the best. If it wasn't checked before walking away it can sometimes open up just a crack. However, a crack was all that was needed to slowly fill the house, yet again with smoke. This slow-moving smoke wasn’t noticed for two reasons. Broha added the last wood to the fire before he went to bed and our smoke alarm didn’t have its batteries. They had been taken out previously because of bacon being cooked or something. Well, it is now 4:45 in the morning and Husband got up and was as angry as a bear. He was the first one to realize the house was filling with smoke.

We assumed the drill, opened all the doors, opened all the windows, all the fans were on, it seems like every light was on in the house. Huabdn woke up Broha and told him what he did wrong. When Broha comes upstairs he apologized for trying to kill us. By this time I was back in bed and told him it was his turn to try and kill us all.

Husband finished getting ready for work and shut all the doors and windows and heads out. I opened a few things back up and laid down for a few more minutes before getting ready for work.

Now, I realize that after reading the last two posts it looked like our house would have no business with a fire. I would like to make it clear that we were not at risk of burning down our house. Also, even though there was smoke in the house I don’t think we were at risk of causing any real issue only because the fire was going to burn out and was nowhere as bad as yesterday’s smoke. We also would be paying way more attention to the stove door and more importantly the smoke detectors.

I cannot wait until we can get a house with an external wood stove. Both of these problems would be negated. Or at least that is what I tell myself.

Any thoughts? If so please leave a comment below. 

Smoke!!! - Part 1 of 2

I wrote this post a while ago, but I lost it. I couldn't find it, but I found it the other day and I was super excited! However, it is a pretty long post so I'm breaking it up into two parts. If you don't like that please let me know in a comment below or on Facebook and I'll post the second part before Sunday. 

Before I dive into this tale, please take note that living in SW Virginia, I have two heat sources. One is a heat pump and the second heat source is a wood stove that is in our basement. 

Some days just are not yours. Monday, January 14, 2019 was one of mine.

It started off like most Mondays, with my alarm going off a few more times than I intended. I then got up, did the normal dog and cat checks, letting them in and out, getting the food and water dishes filled up, and filling the whole house humidifier. Once that was completed I settled down to meditate for 20 minutes before I turned on the news hoping work would be delayed for at least an hour or two. After seeing the alphabet run across the bottom of the screen twice and work not listed I knew it was time to get ready to go. I walked downstairs to add another log to the wood stove and to gather up socks and underwear that live in the basket by the dryer. My downfall was the extra stick of wood.

I had I heard Husband add some earlier but wanted to add another one since I didn’t know the Broah’s plan for the day. I put on work gloves, added the log of wood, struggled with closing the door, it keeps not latching, and then shit got weird.

My woodstove itself, sits in my basement, inside a metal shell that helps keep the heat, more together so a little fan can blow the hot air into the main house through a hole in the floor.  A pipe that connects the wood stove to the chimney is L shaped, and a piece just falls right off. Now, that is a big problem. If the smoke isn’t being routed out through the chimney then the only option for it to go it out into the rest of the house. I tried like 3 times to reconnect the pipe to the stove chimney. The problem was the fire was going REALLY good. So all the smoke and fumes are being pushed into that little metal shell. While trying to reconnect this pipe, the issue wasn't the smoke in the lungs as much as straight burning to delivered to my eyes.

Once I realized I wasn’t going to be able to reconnect the pipe I went into Broha’s room and was like hey…hey, hey, but he was snoring away so I was like never mind, I got this. I ran upstairs, covered the vent that leads to the rest of the house from the woodstove box with some towels to try and keep some of the billowing smoke from going upstairs, and then went back to the basement to try and reconnect the pipe again. By this point, fans were set up and blowing, all the doors, and windows that could be opened in the basement were, but the smoke was quickly filling the room. Since I still, no luck reconnecting the pipe I was like I have to get Broha up to see if he could help.

I did get him up and was like the pipe fell off the stove, he being just woken up and the brain wasn’t geared up was like what fell off of what? I was like the pipe that connects the chimney to the stove fell off, I need your help to try and reconnect it. At this point understanding hit his sleepy brain and he was up and coming over to assess the situation. He, like me, tried a few times to connect the pipe without success. I was like we have to just put the fire out. He was like yes, and went to go find a gas mask. I went to find a fire extinguisher.

 With a fire extinguisher in hand, I opened the woodstove door, hit the fire, used the whole tiny thing up and 1 minute later the fire was back to full force. Shit. That was stupid. So now there is smoke, fumes, and chemicals filling the metal shell and the rest of the basement. I went upstairs to grab the other fire extinguishers and realized the entire upper part of the house was now filling with smoke as well. It looked like someone was shooting a street seen in London because the smoke was getting so thick I could not see clearly across the room.

At this point, I have no idea where Broha was and hit straight smoke management. I started by putting Teach outside the on the front porch, opened all the windows I could, and turned on all the fans to hopefully push the smoke outside. I started to open just the kitchen's screen door window and was I didn't have time for that and propped the whole door open. That’s when I proceed to have a Fred Flinstone moment with my cat. Knowing the dog was safely outside the front door, breathing fresh air I decided the cat should do the same thing. I scooped him up, put him out the front door, and then while I checked the other rooms, I saw the cat walk back inside. My first thought was where did you come from? The second thought was like get outside! I scooped up the cat again, put him out the front door, and then worked on getting the fire extinguishers that I was originally upstairs for and saw the cat walk back in through the open kitchen door. Whatever man, it’s your choice to kill yourself.

Now that I was armed with 3 fire extinguishers I walked down into the now super-duper smoke-filled basement. I didn't know where Broha was and I know that I had to put out the fire. That was the only option at this point. When I had tried to put the fire earlier with the fire extinguishers it had not worked because the fire was too hot and had too much wood. I was worried that my 3 remaining fire extinguishers would not have enough power to put out the fire either. My only thought at that point was to remove the wood from the woodstove. And that is exactly exactly what I started to do. We had two bigger leather gloves that looked like gauntlet that both happen to be left hand, yes two gloves both for your left hand, and started pulling out logs from the fire. I then quickly walked outside and threw the logs into the grass. SW Virginia had just had a weird snow/ice storm so the backyard is luckily cold, wet with a snow/slush mixture. This was helpful in keeping the logs from catching things on fire. I was able to remove about two logs without issue but the third log, of course,  it was crumbly and halfway to becoming ash and hits the basement floor. I then get to take a few minutes to stomp out the embers. The last remaining logs were like really, really on fire, so I threw them in the wheelbarrow (the wheelbarrow is used to bring in wood and it happened to still be inside the basement at that time), rolled it outside with the still-burning logs, dumped the whole thing in the yard and just left the wheelbarrow on top of the logs. My hope at the time that it would help smother the logs on fire. 

Now that inside the woodstove is just a bed of red hot angry coals. I take a minute to breathe fresh air and call Husband, who is at work to give him an update, before trying to hit the coals the first of the three extinguishers. It helped, but now the wood smoke is mixed with chemicals that burned the eyes and the lungs. I went back outside, threw the fire extinguishers outside, got some clean breaths of air, hold my breath, and headed back in.

Broha comes back into the fray and had his gas mask on, (don’t ask why he has one, it is just something that is likely to be found in our house), and even though it isn’t rated for smoke, but it was apparently helping with the burning of the eyes. I took the second fire extinguisher and handed Broha the last one. I told him he had to figure out how to get it to work. I hit the fire again with my last extinguisher but it didn't do much as it and craps out halfway through. I guess those things really do expire. As I went back outside to throw the now useless thing outside and get air Broha hits the fire with the last of the extinguishers.

Why did I keep throwing things in my yard? I have no idea but I kept doing it. 

Going back into the basement, the fire inside the wood stove was still not out. All fire extinguishers have been used now what? I was like, well we have a hose right outside, let’s try that. I pull-pushed it threw one of the windows, pulled it over to the stove, turn on the water and nothing came out! It was dripping and not helping put out the file. I could have spit more than what was coming out of the hose. 

What do we do next!?!? How does this riveting story end? You'll find out next Sunday Funday!!! 

Travel Time Tips - lost in drafts folder post

This picture is not from our honeymoon but my shoes are! 

While pondering what to write for this week's blog post, I found this little guy in my drafts folder. This post is only a little less than 4 years late so enjoy a blast from the past. 

Just a few short weeks ago I was hanging out with New Dude, in Las Vegas, Nevada. We were enjoying our Honeymoon.

I have traveled many times now as an adult. I've left the country, I've gone on cruise ships, and driving up and down the east coast. This is, however, the first time in YEARS I have been able to take a plane ride with someone, New Dude. I actually cannot even remember the last time I went on the plane with another person. That is sad actually.

I've gone on some amazing trips with my friend V., but a lot of the time we meet at the airport at our destination and then go from there. This time I was actually driving to the airport with someone. It was a good type of different.

While on my trip I had a few moments when I wished my mom was there calling all the shots.
As children, your parents are the ones taking care of transpiration, money, food, shelter, what to do, when to do it, and all of the packing/double-checking of the packing. We just had to follow along with their master plan, fill in complaints when we couldn't eat fast food for every meal or go to some crazy super-duper expensive tourist trap.

Well, that doesn't really happen anymore. It is all on me and whomever I am traveling with, in this case, New Dude.

I am getting better at it, I really am. Or at least that is what I keep telling myself, however, like all trips I had some fails. Like bringing along my computer but forgetting the charger at home. Or forgetting my socks on top of the dryer. Here are just some new fun facts that I've learned about travel from this trip.

I don't mind being told I'm a tourist by taking pictures of everything, pulling out a map more often than needed, or even smiling like a dork at something I've never seen. What I do hate about travel is when I feel like I'm being taken advantage of.

On this trip, we rented a car, and during this rental process, I felt like that. I received a quote from the Internet which was about half of what the final cost was. I think one of the places where we could have saved was the gas fee. We paid a gas fee where we could drop the tank off empty and they would fill it up and we wouldn't have to worry about a thing. Well, it sounds like a good idea because we had no idea how much gas was, or how big the gas tank was. You never know exactly what kind of car you're going to get until you get the car. Well, the gas tank for the car we were renting was only 10 gallons. At $4.00 a gallon, which it wasn't, we still would have saved money for filling up the tank ourselves. We also did the extra insurance, which I think was probably a good idea. However, because I wasn't completely sure what it covered made me like it less. If it would have been explained a little better about what it would take care of versus our own personal insurance I would have been less frustrated. I also think them giving us a breakdown of how much it would cost per extra hour would have been helpful as well. I knew it would be a little bit more expensive but for about 1 hour over we paid half a day's rental. Add in the total time of renting the car took about 2.5 hours. Two hours to rent and exit the parking garage and another 30 minutes when we returned the car. We didn't know exactly what to do or where to go and had to wander around and find a person, it was a very, very frustrating process.

If you rent a car on your next trip I would do a little bit more research and ask more questions about price. Also, the keys are probably already in the car, we did not know that. I would also ask for and write down the process of returning the car/keys. It was our fault just as much as theirs for not asking more questions. The rental car itself was very nice and was great for getting us where we wanted to be, but I feel like some stress and the nagging feeling they were taking advantage of us could have been removed.

The next thing I would do is learn more about the shuttle services that the hotels offer. The first hotel on our first night did have shuttle service, however, they had a cut-off hour of 9 pm. Our flight didn't arrive until 9:30 pm so we were calling the hotel at 10 pm just to find out that we had to grab a taxi. Honestly, I would have changed hotels if I would have known that before. Standing at an airport after traveling for over 12+ hours and not sure how to get to our hotel was not fun. A taxi brought us there but you never know if they are taking the best route and how much the actual trip will cost. More fun money I did not want to spend on transportation. If four people would have been sharing a cab it would be worth it, but not for just two people. We did use the shuttle to get to the airport the next day to bring us to the car rental place.

One of the last places we stayed also did not have a shuttle service at all. I was very bummed to learn about that but I did learn about the Super Shuttle. It is a small shuttle bus that will take you from the airport to your hotel. It just might have a less direct route because they'll be stopping off at other people's nearby hotels, possibly, first. It was cheaper, and at the same time we were getting our first ride to the hotel we were also able to set up our return pick up time. Our flight home was at 12:30 pm and they picked us up at 10:30 am that morning. That part was a nice find.

Most cities that I have visited as of late have had public transpiration like subway stations of some sort. Well, we were on the Las Vegas strip, with no hotel shuttle bus and no desire to pay for the high unpredictable cost of a taxi. We found a few very cool ways to get around. Any of the actives, we went to a machine gun ranch which was off the strip, had a shuttle service that would pick us up and drop off. That saved us a few dollars. We even had them drop us off at a different casino off the strip to go zip lining. We zip-lined and then hung around there for a little bit before wanting to get back to our hotel. One staff member told us about a bus stop but we were unsure where it was located. We went up to the player/club/member desk for the casino to find out where exactly this bus stop was. Instead, the lady told us about them having their own shuttle bus to other casinos on the strip. She told us where to wait and if anyone asked us about our member's card to tell them we forgot it our room. No one asked and we made it back onto the strip. That was a nice little surprise. The only issue with shuttle buses is that you are always waiting on other people/on their timeline. Being spoiled by living in Virginia in a less busy area where I can jump in a car anytime I want, park where I want, at any time I feel, well it makes waiting seem like forever.

The next best thing we learned was about the bus that goes up and down the strip. For anyone who wants to go to Las Vegas, wear comfortable shoes those blocks are LONG and usually hot since it was in triple digests during the day and still high 90s at night. The bus is the way to go. You can pay for two hours, 24 hours, or 3 days and you can jump on and off as much as you want and they go up and down the strip and all over. I think that was one of the best ideas we had. We were able to go all the way to Fremont Street and up to the Mandalay Bay on the same $8 per person.

Water, water, water. If you are anything like New Dude and me, we drink a lot of water. If you grab a bottle from every convenience store, shop in the airport, and mall drink station you'll spend a lot of money on just water. We, especially in the airport, would just drink all the water and hold onto the empty bottle and fill it up at water fountains. Yes, the water sometimes tasted a little different and was a little less cold, but it saved us a lot of money. Plus, you might not always be able to get water. When we were leaving the Hoover Dam the cafe' was closed and we couldn't get any water. At the car rental place, it cost us $10 for two 1 liter bottles. That is stupid, but then we had large water bottles that came in handy when stuck at the Hoover Dam with no water.

Bring snacks with you as well. Maybe not the same snacks that you have at home like cheese sticks and apples, but bring something that you can throw into any bag and eat if you are stuck away from food. We brought an entire box of Cliff Bars with us. They saved us when we ran out of time in the airport between flights, on the road stuck in the desert, waiting for the shuttle at the machine gun ranch, and a few other times. When I get hungry, it is no fun. Not much talking, low energy, mean, cranky, and frustration, which you really want to avoid on trips, goes sky high. Having one of these bars in easy reach made waiting to find a bigger meal possible. Those Cliff Bars saved useless fights, angry stares, and overall unpleasantness that we wouldn't want in any part of our trip.

One of the many things that made this trip so much fun, besides it being with New Dude and ending with some friends, was that we made goals each day. Going into this trip that there were a million and one things we wanted to see and do on our 7-day trip, but there is only so much time, money, and hours in a day. By sitting down on the plane or car or wherever we were, we made sure that if nothing else was done/accomplished with that day that we did X. It was a great idea for a few reasons. One, it did keep us from packing our day with 80,000 things so for every moment we weren't rushing from event to event and never getting a moment to just enjoy the activity we were doing. Two it also helped keep us on budget. We had a limit on how much money we could spend per day on food and activities. If we didn't spend all of it in one day we could push it over to another day, but still, we had a limit. We didn't want to come back in the hole from vacation. And, it still allowed us to have freedom of change. On the second day, our goal was to make it from Las Vegas, Nevada to Flagstaff, Arizona. Well, because that was our only goal we stopped at the Hoover Dam. When we finished the Dam Tour, we took our time walking around and then when leaving, we walked across the new Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. If we would have been super rushed to get to the hotel that night we wouldn't have been able to go for that walk or take some cool pictures.

The last thing I learned from this trip, especially in a city like Las Vegas, is to make sure you plan and bring about $50 or more in small bills. You're going to be tipping a lot of people. All the people on the sidewalks are dressing up for tips. All the shuttle buses, cabs, waitresses, bellhops, and it just seems like everyone you talk too would like a tip Now, I used to be a waitress, I understand how much my pay depended on tips. My only question would be some jobs, how much do they make? Then again, does it matter? I don't know, all I know is that we were always looking for ones and fives. So just plan to bring small bills and add it into your budget.

In conclusion, travel is a great way to get closer to the ones you love while exploring and visiting other places. It allows you to see all the different types of jobs people have, the ways people can live, natural beauty, and even inner beauty. With a few more questions asked about shuttles, a few drinks and snacks, and allowing for some wiggle room both in the budget and the timeline, any trips you take to be filled with fun memories. 

Do you have any travel tips? If so please leave a comment below!