Another year, another pile of soot.Finally I was able to cross off the item 'clean the wood stove chimney' from my To Do list (I don't have any such list).In Spring, the weather gets warmer and we have the odd fire at night to take the chill out of the house, and then at some point you realize 'we are done having fires in the wood stove for this year.'Soon after that, I was busy with this and that on the weekends including our annual Tacos Party.Next, it was the weather. We are still in rainy season over here and more often than not, we end up with rainy weekends. While it's possible to clean the chimney when it rains, I prefer not to because sometimes rain is blown into our chimney and part of the cleaning process involves cleaning some parts outside.Today I was finally able to get the job done. The weather was perfect, and because I'd planned for doing the task today, I was able to get it done before lunchtime.Years ago, when I first bought my chimney cleaning supplies in Canada I had the misfortune of dealing with a jerk of a salesperson who questioned every product I wanted to buy. Living in Japan, it wasn't easy for me at the time (and it still isn't that easy today) to pick up supplies for our wood stove. During a visit to Canada I went to a shop to purchase various products. I'm not sure if the company I dealt with is still in business, but if they are I would be surprised. Usually salespeople work hard to sell you products, but the jerk (2nd time) I dealt with thought I didn't need any of the products I requested.Fourteen years on, I'm still using the products and they are still doing a good job. It's a dirty job, but as it only takes me about an hour it's not too bad. Thankfully I finished before the full humidity of summer has hit us. Humidity plus soot equals a messy, messy chore.Now that that's finished, I can concentrate on other jobs, like getting rid of weeds from the garden, and trying to control the insects in our yard. It's good to always have something to do!