It’s probably three weeks to a month before I break down and set up the woodstove, because I kind of hate the woodstove. But it’s time for…
…my beloved bedroom heater.
First I had to uncover the outside vent…
I never used to have to cover the vent, until I added a handrail to the porch stairs. Approximately 20 minutes after I did that, though, I got my first mouse nest inside the bedroom heater’s firebox. And since I wasn’t expecting that, it was in quite a mature state – complete with babies – when I did find it. And I didn’t know, at the time, how to clean out the firebox so it was a massive disaster at the time though the long-term fallout was learning more about how my heater worked, which came in handy later, and also learning that I have to cover the vent as soon as I put the heater to bed for the warm season. I actually made a hardware cloth cage for the vent but never found a good way to mount it, so I just wrap it with plastic and duct tape – and check that cover periodically. So far it’s never been bothered.
With the cover unwrapped…
…I proceed to the biggest hassle of the procedure: Getting the damned pilot light to catch fire. This used to be a much (much much) bigger deal than it is now because for the first few years the gas plumbing was kind of ad hoc and never permanently pressurized. Getting the air out of it through that tiny orifice was unbelievably time consuming. Like, 45 minutes to an hour. Now it still doesn’t light *right* up but I don’t have to bring a magazine to read while I wait.
Takes a while for the dust burnoff to stop stinking up the cabin, but once it’s done I’ve got my winter cozy spot ready.
Yeah, for a warm, cozy place to be.
It’s nice to be at the easy end of the learning curve.
About the vent, if you were able to scrounge up a small bit of tarp, say a square foot, and an old tire inner tube, you could cover the vent with the tarp and hold it in place with a cut piece of inner tube that would act like a big rubber band.