Propane and Green Wood

This blog is for Paul, if he's following along that is. Paul was a neighbour three doors down in Penetang. When we were saying our good-byes and he and his wife were wishing us well, I told them I would be blogging the experience. He asked if I would record it as it was, or sugar-coat it.

I guess I try to be a fairly positive person. Look for the best. Seek out the blessings. I share, not to make it seem that my life is sugar-coated, but show my thankfulness of "heavenly sprinkles".
Life is a lot of pain and sorrow. If you don't personally have problems (at this moment), you know someone who does. Or a lot of someones.  I have been calling life's little joys and pleasures, "sprinkles". It's like heaven can't come down and take away all our problems, but there is a sifter between here and there and sprinkles of heaven get shaken down to lighten up the dark moments.
Add some joy and grace to the hard stuff.
Bring warmth to the cold.
Brush the silver-lining onto the back of that cloud.

But when you are cold and tired, and look ahead to more coldness and tiredness...it's easy for the odd negative feeling to slip in. Shivers and numb fingers make it harder to spot the sprinkles.

There was a little snapping and short-sounding comments in our tiny home this morning. And that's the truth.

It's getting cold. Like three degrees Celsius cold.
We are thinking more about heat then we ever have.

Last night we ran out of propane for the second time.
Not a surprise.

The two big tanks, which came with the trailer, lasted us a little over two weeks. They emptied on Friday.
Tried to find a place to fill them yesterday, even though we aren't sure if they can be filled, can't find a date on them anywhere, but they certainly look older then 10 years....

You'd think in a land of trailers, mobile homes, cottages and tourists you'd not have to go far before you were tripping over a propane re-fill center.
Not so.

There was no filling the tanks yesterday. But we were able to hook up our BBQ propane tank to tide us over. It got us through the night. Kept us warm at least.

But there will be a very slim chance of filling them today.
We also live in a land where everything is closed on Sundays.

OK. You ready for the sprinkles I found?

I'm not that frozen that I couldn't find them :)

That little propane tank lasted until morning. We were comfortable all night. Stumbling around in the dark to find a solution, or laying freezing in bed until morning light would have been far worse for sure!

It also helped that for some reason (I think it was prompting from above) yesterday I decided to remake all the beds with flannel and wool blankets. It was a mini-miracle that I could even find them in the piles of belongings stacked in the barn.

On a whim (or was it?!) I bought a space heater on one of our many trips to the hardware store. I bought it in t-shirt and flip-flop weather. But it's big enough to keep the trailer warm. And in the early morning of dawn, with the night's rain all cleared away, I was able to go get it out of the house and plug it in to keep the trailer warm.

Electricity. Talk about a whole jar of sprinkles right there!!  and the fact that Geoff was successful in getting the trailer connected safely to the house. IF you haven't thanked God for hydro in the last couple days, take a moment right now to say "Thanks!!"

Hot plates. You know the kind you plug in. We have one which sits quite nicely on top of the propane stove and even has TWO burners. And it, like the space heater, uses (see above blessing) electricity!!   We aren't going to do without tea and warm meals.

The slow cooker (that was on sale no less) that I bought days after we arrived. And it, like the items above, uses.....you can figure it out ;) We are having roast of beef tonight. Not sounding too hard up are we!?!

My Columbia Fall coat I got for $8 at "Thingz"!!  (one of four thrift stores in our small town). Even in "storage" I couldn't have found such a perfect "this-time-of-year-coat" cause I didn't have one.

Now about the green wood.

We are having a load of it dropped off this morning.

Green wood burns 30% less efficiently then dry.

You'd think in a land of trees, timber and several trucks daily rumbling by our house completely filled with logs, that you would be able to find dry wood to buy wouldn't you?

We haven't....yet.

So, I'll be looking for the sprinkles that'll come with the green wood.
For sure green wood is better than NO wood|!! Especially when you have no secondary source of heating like ourselves....yet.....

While I am waiting for the "wet" wood to arrive, I think I will go rummage around in the barn some more. Layers of t-shirts and socks with the flip-flops isn't quite cutting it.  (haha, we haven't done that yet, we've had sweaters and fleece lined crocks). But the time has come to bring out the winter clothes.

Oh, and Paul, if you are reading this....
Tatamagouche means "Where the waters meet"..... or best they can tell.

And may you all find "heaven's sprinkles" in whatever place you find yourself today.