I was watching a documentary recently and it was all about how they used to literally send kids up inside of chimneys to clean them out.
It was terrible and kids used to die doing this.
Thank God we don’t have to do that anymore. Of course chimneys still need to be cleaned. If you don’t clean your chimney then you yourself might die. But, thankfully, no one needs to go inside of the chimney in order to clean it. Now they have long brushes for tasks like that. I get my chimney cleaned out every year in late summer or early fall. I want to be prepared for the cold winter ahead. Of course, my home has central heating as well. However, if the power goes out you absolutely must have a backup heat source. Especially in this area. Without a backup heat source you could, quite literally, freeze to death. That doesn’t happen too often though. What is more likely to happen is that your pipes will freeze and you will be dealing with a very expensive plumbing repair bill. My fireplace has saved me on more than one occasion. That is why I have the chimney cleaned every single year. Besides that, it is just nice to have a warm fire when it is cold outside. The slight smell of wood smoke, coupled with the dancing fire, is so nice. I can’t imagine the holidays without my fireplace. Although I do have to say, I am glad I have the central heater too. I wouldn’t want to have to chop wood every single day. I also wouldn’t like to have to get up super early just to make sure that the fireplace was still going.