A Little Excitement

  We had a little excitement here yesterday.  I noticed that the wood stove pipe had separated just below the inside elbow and told Jeff.  When he put  the pipe together again he noticed that it really needed cleaning. So that what he did...took the bottom cap off the pipe outside and cleaned it.  Then he took the elbow apart and cleaned the upright section and then the firebox, putting all the soot into the ash bucket. After he put the pipe back together-again, he emptied the ash bucket into the snow covered compost bin. And we sat down to supper (Italian stuffed peppers...a great recipe from an old friend, Liz O'Brien).  After supper Jeff went into the den to check the wood stove and suddenly started yelling.  He told me to look outside and when I did, I saw what he was yelling about.  The compost bin was on fire!  Flames were 3-4 ft into the air!!  Jeff grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran outside. He was soon back in the house filling the ash bucket with water and telling me to fill the pressure canner...it's the biggest kettle we have! When I handed him the canner he said to call the fire department!  He managed to knock down the fire but he was afraid there wouldn't be enough water in the well to put it out.  East Herkimer Volunteer Fire Department was soon racing down our road and Jeff was waiting for them at the mailboxes to direct them to turn and not go sailing past us. (We tend to have that problem with emergency vehicles and repair trucks.)  They brought all 3 trucks (!!!) and the fire was soon out.  They pulled the sides off the compost bin...that's what was burning...but the contents were solid ice!  Jeff was worried that the fire would spread to the wood shed but, thankfully, that didn't happen. We were both a little edgy afterward, thinking that it might start up again, but we made it thru the night ok. Still don't know what started the fire if the contents were solid ice.  Maybe methane

gas escaping thru the chimney's in the compost piles.  I think it doesn't take much to start that. Anyway, this is what's left of our compost bin.  But the plastic on the woodshed didn't even melt!