People throw away the damndest things, and other stuff.

I know. Yes. I did it again. Sorry. But let me catch you up…

Okay – actually not a lot has been going on. But there was one big (BIG) development just yesterday. But first:

A Generous Reader, familiar with my kink for good coffee, sent me a gourmet gift! I’m already well into the first one, and it’s goood. Thanks!

Day before yesterday we got our first snow…

Gone by today, of course. Didn’t even leave much mud. But a symbolic official start to winter. And significant because…

As November came and went and I still hadn’t set up the woodstove’s support system I came to a really serious conclusion. People, I hate my woodstove. I mean an older, cobbled-together woodstove system tried to burn me out at the end of my very first winter in the cabin and I’ve been paranoid ever since but it’s not that. It’s the work, and the hassle. I never got around to cutting wood this autumn. Still have lots in the woodshed but that’s not the point: I always cut wood, whether I think I need it or not, and I just didn’t. I hate the hassle. I hate the mess. I hate the fact that it’s feed it every fifteen minutes (and overheat the cabin) or it goes out, so feast or famine. Did I mention I hate the work. I hate how much space it takes up. I hate – everything about my woodstove. I’m literally getting too old for this shit. And yet winter is here, and the bedroom propane heater can only do so much. So heavy sigh, right? I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

Well, here’s the thing: I could afford to heat with propane now. Couldn’t in earlier years but I could now. I thought about getting a propane stove this summer but the problem is logistic: There’s noplace around here to buy a real propane room stove. And this summer I got sick and didn’t do anything, so winter came and I was stuck with my woodstove.

Except…Remember this?

D&L replaced their wood pellet stove with a propane model a few months ago, to the sound of rejoicing. But it had a problem: It wouldn’t stay lit with the fan on. Ran perfectly fine if you unplugged the fan, but with the fan on the pilot kept going out. Numerous service calls later, the company she bought it from gave up and offered her a discount on a higher-end model. And she asked what would become of the old one. And they said they’d take the fan off of it for service calls and scrap the stove. And she asked how much if a neighbor wanted to buy it?

You know where I’m going with this.

$100. Yeah, right now the gas plumbing is temporary – I mean scary temporary but good enough to test it. And it works great. I was really afraid it would drive me right out of the cabin but on the lowest setting it’s not quite enough to heat the cabin – but on the second-to-lowest it’s great.

NO MORE WOODSTOVE! WOODSTOVE IS GONE! I’m going to haul it over to Ian’s, where it can replace the unuseably small woodstove that nobody ever bothers to light because you can’t build a fire in it big enough to heat up the stovepipe and sustain fire. I’VE GOT A PROPANE STOVE FOR THE MAIN CABIN!

Me happy. That is all.

Here’s a pretty picture.