Leigh, heads-up! Cleaning a traditional, masonry stove

Cleaning a masonry stove (Russia)

Leigh, this post is for you. I have no expectations that you will DO this, but it is informative to see how other people solve universal problems.

There is very little dialog explaining what is going on.

Based on the vegetation (Populus nigra, Acer platanoidies), available fish species (including Scomber scombrus) and the displays in the WWII memorial parks, I think this is in Russia on the east side of the Baltic Sea.

It looks as if the exhaust from the fire is drawn through a labyrinth (to the left of the fire) to transfer the heat to the bricks.

The grandmother scrapes off the plaster in a few places and "knocks-out" some plugs and cleans the passage ways of soot and masonry dandruff.

At the ten-minute mark, she mixes up mortar (perhaps as simple as sand and a bit of flour to bind it).

The mortar is mixed "soupy" or wet.

A person experienced in drywall repair would have figured out a way to secure the block being mortared into place with florist wire and a dowel so the mortar could have been aggressively troweled into place without pushing it into the space behind it.