It finally happened. I started the propane heater in my bedroom. I had no choice.
I know that the fumes are probably toxic. I really had no choice. It is -2 beside my bed. Most likely it is much colder in here as the thermometer is next me.
My temp sensor on my solar batteries across the room say -4.
Now for what happened. I climbed out of bed to start my morning chores. Halfway out I remembered I would need to get my ¡coffee cup from the cup holder I had built a few years ago.
The cup wasn’t empty, it was half full and no that isn’t a metaphysical half empty statement.
It ended up all over my sweatpants. TG most of it didn’t get on my blankets. The sweat pants were soaked. I got those off and realized it was really fucking cold without pants. New pants were cold too.
I came up with a plan. I took my almost empty propane bottle from making coffee. Hooked that to the big buddy heater that has been sitting in a box new for two years.
Of course the instructions were long gone and in a safe place. I figured it out. Turn the switch to pilot mode, engaged the sparker. I saw a small flame. I tried to turn the heater to low. It would not.
I reasoned that the pilot light needed time to warm up. While that warmed up, I hooked a new propane bottle to the single burner cookstove to heat coffee water.
Finally I was able to light the heater. I may die because of the fumes, but I will die warm.
Half hour later, the room is warmer and so are my next pair of pants. It’s a little tight in the loft I am going to attempt putting them on without lighting them or me on fire.
Coffee is made, i checked the weather it is better than the dismal neews I saw last night that showed that the extreme cold was staying.
Later today the temp will rise to almost -18. Funny that used to be too cold, now it’s a heatwave.
The cats have to wait this morning while I get warmer. I reasoned that the same way you are supposed to act when the oxygen mask drops from the plane. Put your mask on first then your children.
Today that is heat.
Cats are fed inside and out. Water for cats melting on the woodstove. One sheet of osb cut into 12 inch strips then 12 inch squares. Those are burning in the woodstove.
I checked the van, one tire is flat. Five days of extreme cold tire is fine on the sixth day its flat. One more thing to do today.
Minus 18 wouldn’t happen till four oclock. Maybe just maybe I can fix the tire, shovel the snow in the driveway and start Gracie who has in living i a deep freeze for 6 days. Yea and frozen pigs can make a snowman. Huh did I get that right?
Oh did I mention that the extreme cold warning is back? Did I also mention it came complete with a forecast of fresh snow, and did I mention that my cat food and diesel heater parts are at the post office.
The last complaint, but probably not. I need to run the gen. Solar battery is about to die it’s at 14% and there is no sun.
The gen is frozen and will be hard to start. It also needs an oil change. If I carry the 80 pound monster down the stairs to the fire room, keep cats from peeing on it. I could warm it up, change the oil down there then carry it back up and start it that might work. Except for the idea of putting gas tank next to the woodstove with open flames it’s a great idea.
Wow. I went out to getmore snow to melt. I slipped on the deck stairs and fell hard. I landed mpstly on my arm. I fell across the stair support. My arm should be broken but it’s not.
So what do you do after that? I keep going. I filled the bowl with snow. Then I started work on the gen. I had tipped up to have a look. Bad idea gasoline started to pour out the air filter box. I opened that up and cleaned up the gas. Then I thought I would try a couple of tugs on the starter rope. The wasn’t even retracting.
That was fruitless. Then I remembered i had a can of ether. The spray nozzle was missing so I used a screwdriver. The ether started to shoot out everywhere and wouldn’t stop. I quickly sprayed a little in the air box and threw the can out in the snow.
After 5 minutes I prayed a little and told God it was up to him now. I told myself 3 pulls and if it didn’t start I would quit.
The gen sputtered and then ran. I was thankful, first for the arm that wasn’t broken and then for the gen that was now charging my solar battery bank.
The gen ran for an hour then quit. They lied about the temp it is more than -30 out there. I just checked and sure enough it is listed at -29 which usually mean -35 for me. My solar batteries are only at 22%.
The solar panels are only producing 1 Amp of power. That will end in two hours.
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