Cleaned out the stove ashes (into metal bucket, now residing outside on the driveway), took down stovepipe, cleaned same (out on driveway -- Wife takes a dim view of powdered creosote on the living room rug), and reassembled whole meghilla. Once again, creosote buildup just past the shiny-coating stage.
Temperature around 30 F, so no fingers were frozen in any way in the making of this film.
We may get rain tomorrow. Boo hiss boo!