Stop in for a cup of coffee

No paid work today... Gonna clean the stove pipes and bottom of chimney.. Wife texted me at work the other night that it backed up and got the house smokey. She isnsisted it was blocked. The way our chimney is set up, there is no space below where the stove pipe goes in, so that is possible. We use the creosote logs and they can make a lot of stuff fall down. She burned one about a week ago, so I thought maybe that was what happened. Pulled the pipe off yesterday and its got some crap in there, but not that bad and nowhere near blocked. Have no idea why it backed up.
I used to have issues at the last house on days it was warmer. I had to get the starter fire very hot or it had issues pulling the draft. More paper and small starter wood Once I figured that out, no more issues. Later I just burned 24/7 and really no issues