Cooler in the woods

November 3, 2007 (5:27am)

24º F, Clear, SSE Wind, 2 mph.

Good morning,

The cool nights seem to be here for the fall and into the winter. Has not really been all that warm in the mornings of late. Probably what is normal for here. I actually thought it would be some cooler sooner. Maybe it is just the year. This area is still spectacular. Now that most of the forest floor has turned to brown and the vegetation has fallen to the ground, you sure can see farther in the woods. Things are much more open that a month ago. It was a bit cooler in here this morning when I got up. Guess I shut down the woodstove too much when I went to bed. There still was some coals in it when I got up, but the wood I put into it didn’t burn. Just got warm from the coal bed. The fire is cackling at the moment, so will be warmer shortly.

I went into town to check on what happened to Eli on Thursday evening. He thought we were to meet there at 6:30 P.M. and I thought it was 7:30 P.M. He and his wife were there and waited for about a half hour before leaving; we were there and waited for a half hour before eating. My original time was 6:30 P.M. to 7:00 P.M., but he thought it would be better to set it an hour later so he could clean up after work. Oh well, we will reschedule it for after Pat’s surgery sometime. He did invite us to his farm this afternoon and we just might do that. Margriet intends to bake a Dutch apple pie (the real one, not what is here) to take a long. She is all excited to build it to take!

I finally finished installing the support for the chimney of the new gas furnace. It took a bunch of whittling to accomplish the task. Once I got the bulk of the wood cut out, it didn’t take as much trimming as I expected to get the piece of OSB to fit flat. When I got my tube of construction adhesive to install the OSB, I discovered it was a solid tube! So I used some caulking to keep it in place and some water out. Will apply more on the outside as it warms up some today. I need to cut the two pipes (one intake and one exhaust) to length and fasten the cap on the outside. Then it is a matter of connecting the gas line and I hope we have heat. Should have that finished today. Really glad the coolness has not been cooler.

The price of gasoline has finally started to climb again. Surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. It has risen 25 cents/gallon in the last 3 days. Now it is up to $3.249/gallon. Expecting much more of a rise soon. Not real happy about that at all. One of the gas stations in Crystal Falls has been building a new convenience store for as long as we have been coming to this area, nearly two years. Thursday the old one disappeared! It was really a surprise as it was being used one day and the next it is gone and the new one apparently being used, even though it is not complete. They also are installing new pumps, so the gasoline pump haven’t been operable for the past week or more. Only the diesel islands have been hooked up. Expect it will not be too long before the gas islands are hooked up and pumping again. Must be costly without them for so long.

We went to Fob’s for walleyed pike last night. They must be catching bigger fish of late (must be using bigger worms to catch them). The size of the fillets are bigger than in the past I think. The taste is just as good though. I get to eat more, as Margriet can’t seem to finish her portion. I don’t mind - too much. We went a bit later than in the past, so the seating was not a problem at all, but they were busy just the same. Fob’s is the only real restaurant in town so they really get busy at times. Crystal Falls really could use another.

Fjord would not start at all yesterday. I really didn’t fool around with it too much as I wanted to get the furnace chimney hooked up. It did fire first thing in the morning, but then could not get it to do so again, more or less. Almost everything I went by it, I tried to start it. I fear the compression is down enough not to draw the fuel/air mix up the updraft carburetor (dumb invention) and it floods out. Not sure, but think that is the problem. Might be the float being stuck, causing the problem. Lot of years have gone by since playing with that!

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><