Catching up

A few loose ends to catch up in the various sagas of life “from the front porch“…

Last we left the motorhome, I had just finished tearing off the steps by navigating too close to a stump with steps that would not totally retract. I had been on my way for propane in my desire to keep the motorhome stocked and ready to roll. After the step incident, I emptied all freezable items for that night. The next day, the roads were still in no shape to go out. I looked at the weather for the next week and finally sighed, squared my shoulders and realized that for the sake of my budget and sanity, I needed to abandon the idea of keeping things ready to go. The last thing to do was empty the fresh water tank – 75 gallons of water to go somewhere on frozen ground…my own private ice rink I thought. So, I opened up a bit more of the turnaround with the snowblower – which was still working then! -backed the motorhome into that area away from anywhere anyone had to drive or walk and drained the tank. Not as bad as I thought – the water was warm enough to sieve into the ground and there was no ice rink after all.

As for the steps, my insurance company will pay for the steps, the body work and any other damage underneath (less my deductible). I just have to get the motorhome to Missoula, 110 miles away. Thankfully, the agent is in Missoula and fully understands the difficulty so it will happen when it happens.

The snowblower is still in the garage waiting pickup if we get a break between storms. Adam is plowing my driveway and the up side is he shows up and it takes about 15 minutes and I’m watching from inside. The downside is my driveway is getting narrower each time. So is the road. The nature of plowing when you can’t plow a “shoulder”.

My roof…

Friday, I shoveled the porch and up to the bath vent. I looked up there several times during the day at the amount of snow…and looked again at the weather forecast. 3 storms due back to back and the 2nd and 3rd due to be a rain/snow mix. You can see that the original cabin was the back half and had a normal roof. When the front half was added, the roof was extended instead of redone …too flat.

Even the snow bird’s house had a lot of snow, but they have a proper pitched roof for snow country!

I had picked up a flyer at the grocery with a number for a guy who shovelled roofs. I called. He and a helper showed up on Saturday.

Roof shoveled and the snow cave got bigger.

The other situation that was getting a bit grim was the state of my firewood supply. Most of “this year’s” 3 cords of wood was waiting to be split…tarped, but lying under nearly 3 feet of snow. The various work and other committments of mine and my friends’ who are helping got away from us. I had about 2 weeks of firewood left on Saturday. I am not dependent on firewood for heat. My little house has electric baseboard heaters which are efficient, clean and quiet. I like the wood heat, though and I like having backup heating and cooking ability should we lose power. I was facing not burning wood and keeping the 2 weeks firewood as my backup.

I headed into Bigfork on a quick errand. At the shopping center there are often 2 or 3 pickups with firewood waiting to be sold. I noticed this day that there was a particularly nice looking load – split in sizes that I wouldn’t have to split further.

Randy and his son Boaz followed me home. They have the absolutely nicest log rack I have ever seen! Also the best truck I’ve ever had deliver firewood. The first time I bought firewood, the delivery truck had no hood and no muffler. The second time, the guy had a pet bobcat with him. And so on…it has always been interesting. Randy and his son have a small building company. The wood came from a job site – more than they needed for their family.

My firewood situation is not quite so desparate now. This is 10-12 weeks supply and hopefully, I’ll be able to get to my stash if this runs low before spring.

Karl and Bob – they had some catching up to do also:

Bob catching up on the chow and Karl on his napping…

… on his increasingly closed in front porch.

I lift up my eyes to the hills

I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

the Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forever more.

Psalm 121: 1-2, 8

…the Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forever more.

for any new readers – these photos are “my road home”.

My house sits near the far edge of the band of trees. I see through the edge of the woods to the Swan Range of the Rocky Mountain Continental Divide.

There are a number of “The Road Home” photos in posts from all different times of the year.

From the front snow cave

I know I said I wanted snow…

Above – this morning, laying on my stomach, just inside my front door with the camera pointed down the “walk”

Below – after shovelling the roof and the sidewalk

So…the snowblower…it blew some snow and then it coughed, spit and quit…several times…

Big John’s wanted to come today to get it and try again – at no charge – but my road is not plowed and neither is the highway, according to a neighbor, so I told them to wait until driving was better. Those 2 sweet young men who do the pickup/delivery and played with Karl – no sense risking their lives over a snow blower!

And the mechanic at Big John’s listened to my attempt to mimic the noises the blower made and he never laughed. He listened…and asked questions!! I am still a fan of Big John’s.

Karl…Karl has had to move from the front porch, to the walk, to the driveway, to get a spot where he can keep a proper eye on his yard.

Adam is back.

There is a certain benefit to the snow cave thing…

Snowblowing, shoveling, snowshoeing – it is thirsty work.

From the front snow cave…

Big John’s

Never say never or last or always…

I wrote in the previous post, not that long ago, that it was my “last post for 2008”. But shortly after I hit “publish”, I received a call from Big John’s. Big John’s is the shop that had my snowblower for tuneup/repair. I decided on Sunday that the snowblower needed a tuneup at the very least. Big John’s is closed on Mondays. I phoned on Tuesday, gave all of my info and was told that their pickup/delivery person would call me “sometime” about picking up the snowblower.

That afternoon, when I was in Kalispell on my pre-storm supply run, I received the call. Dave was about 1/2 an hour from my house. I was 2 hours from my house. I gave instructions to get into the garage and when I returned the snowblower was gone. I put a note on my calendar to call Big John’s on Tuesday next week and see if they had any guess as to when I might get the blower back. I calculated that given the extreme cold and heavy snow, there might be a LOT of snow blowers needing service and snow machines and 4 wheelers, etc. – all the purvey of Big John’s.

Dave phoned me early this afternoon and said they would deliver the blower back to me in an hour if that was ok.

Yippy, Skippy and A-OK with me. I was beyond happy.

Dave and his assistant played with Karl whilst I got a check for the whopping sum of …..drum roll please: $61.50 – which included the pickup and delivery. I had expected $150 plus.

Karl was disappointed when they left.

I am now the president of Big John’s fan club.