Chim-Chimney

     Chim chimney, chim chim cher-ee

     A sweep is a lucky as lucky can be.

    A good thing, too.  Who would want to mount this contraption without a healthy dose of luck on his side?

      Time to clean the chimney (maybe we won’t need a fire after the first week of May).  So here is how it happened.

     The two sections of scaffolding on the ground left me about 10 feet short of the chimney top.  Old truck to the rescue.

      A bit of a hassle getting the scaffold into the truck and then set up.  Be sure to set the brakes (on the scaffold—no emergency brake on the truck).

     Then, more heavy lifting to get the planks to the top. 

                                                                                                                 

     Now back up to the chimney while avoiding the flag stones marking the septic tank accesses.  Not entirely successful on that one—one replacement stone required.  One slight dent in the chimney, too, but no real damage.

    I was still a little short after the four-foot boost the truck bed provided, so on with the ladder.  The ladder is secured to the scaffold with a ratchet strap.

     Down to the business of sweeping.  The former owner of this house had a set of brushes, but, he lent them to a friend who lent them to another friend, and where are they now?  So I had to borrow a brush from another friend who used to be in the business of chimney sweeping.

    Pull the top off the chimney and brush it out first.

       Then ram the brush down the main chimney.

     Of course, time to gawk around from the lofty perch.

     And check out the lilacs.

      And reach the goal.

     There are less romantic things to be done, like take out the stove pipe in the basement and clean it, brush soot and ashes into the stove, empty the stove, put everything back together, take down the Rube Goldberg elevator, return the brushes and the truck.  End of chimney sweep adventure.  Another brush with life.