Our New Old House

Isn’t that a nice, cozy fire? I’m so thrilled with our new fireplace insert. We need to buy some less expensive wood than the couple bundles we picked up at Quik Trip ($3.99 for a bundle of about eight pieces). I’ve been calling around to a few places and I’ll let you know what we ended up spending and how much wood we got once we get it.

We haven’t really run it long enough or hot enough to seriously heat the house yet. It was still curing the first time we burned in it so we didn’t want to fire it too hot right away. I’ll see what it can do tonight since it’s going to get pretty cold.

Last night I wanted to see if I’d left the owner’s manual inside the fireplace, so I opened up the glass door and saw THIS!!!

This praying mantis had made itself nice and cozy inside our fireplace! It’s that time of year when mantids (the correct plural form of mantis – I looked it up!) are laying their eggs then finding warm places to hang out until they, well, die. This one has been eating all the other little bugs that have made their way down our chimney. Fortunately, our fireplace is sealed with an airtight door. Unfortunately, it looks like our mantis friend is doomed. We can’t keep it alive in the house all winter (they typically don’t live longer than a few months in the fall anyway) and if we leave it in the chimney it will die when we light the first fire. It seemed to be on its last legs anyway, so hopefully nature will take its course and we’ll find it has perished before we have to dispose of it alive.

Nice to know we have these beneficial insects in our yard anyway!