artificial fire logs

Kristoph Klover, Seanan McGuire's sound engineer, says the sound levels on the new flute tracks I sent him were fine and that the tracks sound good. Yay! Looks like I'm finally getting the hang of this. Thanks to Jeff Bohnhoff for his continued coaching. :-)

Hey, looks like the my new GAfilk song is going to be included in the GAfilk songbook! Possibly even "Hey J.K." (new Harry Potter song) and "Sing With Me" as well. Many thanks to the fabulous Mary Crowell for all her hard work in putting together the songbook every year.

Finished The Wood Wife last night, on the couch in front of the fire. I quite enjoyed the book, and the atmosphere reminded me of some Charles de Lint books. We've been using our fireplace more often recently as the weather gets colder.

At the cottage, we use regular logs and chopped kindling. In our house, however, we're opting to use pre-fab fire logs. A recent houseguest mocked us for using these fire logs. :-) It's true they aren't the same as a real fire but y'know, Jeff and I are both finding some advantages to using these pre-fab logs in a small city house:



- One log burns much longer than a real log, hence we need far less storage space.

- Needs no kindling. Again, less storage, plus we don't have to chop kindling.

- They leave fewer ashes. Less to clean up, less trash.

- Less risk of fire spreading. No burning wood pieces shifting during the fire, no sparks or exploding embers.

- According to info I found online, artificial fire logs reduce pollutant emissions.

Some things to remember when using an artificial fire log:

- DON'T add wood or paper to the fire, and don't put an artificial log on a real fire.

- Don't move, poke or break up an artificial log while it's burning.

- Don't use artificial logs for open flame cooking or barbecues.

- Only use one log at a time.

What are artificial logs made of?

I was curious about this, so did some research. Apparently most logs are made of wax and some combustible material like sawdust, wood chips or coffee grounds.

Summary:

So while Jeff and I do prefer a real fire and always use regular kindling and logs when we're at the cottage, so far we've found that artificial logs work for us in our current house set-up. We may eventually switch to real wood, but we'd need to set up a wood storage area in the basement or backyard and also beef up our fireplace area as well as get proper fireplace tools.

And artificial logs or no, there's nothing like reading a book with a cup of tea in front of the fire when it's cold outside.

:-)

Below: Walter and me during Dave Clement's visit. Photo by Allison.





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