This was shot through the screen so it has an unusual texture. The fire was made with wood cut here on the property, with pine cones liberally sprinkled in for their wonderful scent and a lower stack of crumpled newspapers to get the whole thing started.
I'm told that it's not wise to add charcoal to an indoor fireplace ... but we do and we've never had an ill effect. The risk is carbon monoxide poisoning, I'm told, but our CO2 detector (when we had it) never detected anything unusual. The fireplace, though, has a Buck stove insert and draws well so perhaps there is little danger with our set-up?
As the evening dragged on, the fire snapped and crackled and made lovely hissing sounds as we watched TV and had a small snack. The temperature in the dining room rose from 64 to 66. Even when we went to our beds, the fire burnt on.
It was a good night for a fire as we had our first patchy frost. That's early for us. Our usual first frost is 10/06. We bottomed out at 36 and a look into the back yard before we left with the laundry showed some of yesterday's mown grass white with frost.
What's better than having a bitterly cold fall night and not turning the furnace on? It did not cost us a cent to have the fire and pile extra blankets on the bed.
