Fuched - Mountain Style! Thought I might fill in the gaps about what's been happening up here in paradise. Be warned that this trail meanders away from the car for a bit, but all paths lead back to the Porsche these days.
Several days before the snow really started to fly, we ordered propane because our tank was down to about 21% and I like to order with plenty of reserve, just in case.
In the past, the longest wait between ordering and delivery has been 3 days, with next day delivery the norm, but our propane company got bought out and merged with another local company and customer service has not been what it used to be. So three days pass and no propane. Not a big deal but that's when the temps dropped into sub zero range and the snow started to fly. I started plowing the drive twice a day trying to keep it clear in case the propane truck showed, but the drive was snowing and drifting shut about as fast as I could plow it. Of course, that's when they tried to deliver. Forensics showed they made it
almost up the drive and then had to retreat. I was home but didn't hear them. Instead of calling me at home, they called my wife at work and bitched about the driveway not being clear. Of course it wasn't! It was moronic to even try to deliver on a mountain pass famous for its snow on in the middle of the biggest storm in a decade.
The next day, the snow let up enough I was able to get the path clear, and keep it clear. But no propane truck arrived. Meanwhile, the temps dove deep. -15 to -17F have been typical lows with sub-zero highs. Friday night, my wife couldn't get home because the air brakes froze on a coal train which blocked the only road to our house. After waiting for 3 hours, she decided to drive to a friends house the next valley to the south and spend the night. The cold temps continued while the wood pile dwindled and the boiler sucked our remaining propane at an unprecedented rate.
That brings us to this morning when the temp at the house was -23F. Around 7:30am, the boiler quit. Our propane tank reads about 7% but either the gauge is frozen stuck, or with the low temps, there just isn't enough pressure to keep the boiler lit. Either way, we're out of gas... and heat... and hot water. One thing going for us is that the sun is out today and we rose to a balmy 5F ABOVE zero. We designed our house for passive solar so despite the cold temps and no heat, I'm actually a little too warm for my tastes with temps in the 70s indoors.
After several attempts to reach someone at the propane company, I finally got to talk to someone at 1pm today. She was rather bitchy, blamed us for not having our driveway clear last week, and didn't promise we'd get a delivery today. Might be time to find another propane service. The immediate task though, was to put the backup plan in operation. Heating our upper level is easy. We have a wood stove although our wood pile is uncomfortably small thanks to running the stove a lot more than usual this winter. The lower level requires setting up a portable backup propane heater, which meant retrieving the propane bottle from the back of the house.
Did I mention that all paths lead to Porsche these days? So here it is. I don't like storing the propane bottle inside our shed. It just isn't safe. So I store it outside. Unfortunately, unknown until today, it had blown off of the "shelf" I put it on to keep it above snow level when I needed it. That "shelf" happened to be a stack of five Fuchs wheels with rotten tires. That meant, in order to get to the bottle, I had to dig the Fuchs out of over five feet of snow and ice. It took an hour to chop the last of the wheels out of a block of ice, but out they are!
Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentThe last thing I need is these things cluttering up the garage, so I decided to add yet another hillbilly touch to the front porch. Think the wife will notice?
Click to view attachment Now while all the digging and chopping was going on, the "supervisor" kept coming over to check on progress. Clearly he assumed all the labor was for his benefit. Less than one minute after I pried the last Fuchs out of the ice, he claimed his spot. Just to orient, that wall of snow is well over five feet high.
Click to view attachmentAs for the propane bottle, it is still frozen in mud. I chopped and dug but any further effort to free it comes at the risk of an explosion. Call me picky, but I'd rather avoid that. My wife is going to buy another bottle after work tonight.
That's a week in paradise! It's all worth it though. These types of winters always sprout a bumper crop of 'For Sale' signs in the spring.