Well, I like a fire each New Year's Eve, and managed one again. Mostly paper, cardboard, and flimsy boxes that clementines came in. But you use what you have.
First, I had to clear out the area in front of the fireplace. The basement is really my woodworking shop, and I cant have those machines heated by a fire. There was my tablesaw there too, but I moved it before I thought to take a picture. And it was really awkward to maneuver it out of the way even on its mobile base, so I wasn't going to put it back just for the sake of a photo!
I had various "stuff to burn":
Then I set up the fire. As I said, it wasn't a "proper" fire, just accumulated burnable stuff from 2011, so it really did look trashy. But fire makes all look the same afterwards.
The funny part was the "old oak board". It was left over since when I had oak floors installed about 15 years ago. It got left out on the patio and deteriorated before I brought it inside again. So I decided it was time to use it up.
The tradition is "yule logs". Yule logs were long and were slowly pushed into the main fire as they burned. I think there used to be some importance as to how long they lasted. Like years of good luck, or something like that. Well, I guess this was a "yule board" and it only lasted an hour. So I hope the "good luck gods" will take that into account. :)
Once I had some good embers and heat, I introduced old Mr Oak Board into the fireplace. You can see it fed slowly into the small fireplace fire here...
The last bit of it!
BTW, I used to have such hot fires that my grate has sagged. You can see the curve in that last photo. I think I should turn it over and have another hot fire to sag it back to "straight". LOL!
