Friday, February 12, 2010

After a long day on Tuesday, January 9, I was feeling run down and I decided to stay at the Microtel. That restful and I felt much better in the morning. I spent the next night in the hollow and I returned Thursday night to find a new problem. When the vent-free heater went on, I could smell something and immediately I knew what the problem was. The tank was down below ten percent and what was now burning was a mixture of propane and methane which produces a disagreeable smell. The tank gauge in the morning had shown fifteen percent, but either that was wrong or there was more methane in the tank. I went outside and phoned the emergency number at Valley Propane and when the representative returned my call, he told me that though disagreeable, the smell was not harmful. I was a bit skeptical of that, but he told me that the company would get me something tomorrow, at worst a hundred pound tank (twenty four gallons) which should get me through a week. I asked about running a line from the hundred gallon tank at my cabin, but he said the distance, over a nintey feet, was too long. I did have a hundred pound tank up there also, but I didn’t know how much was in it since it hadn’t been used since the house was built. That tank could prove very helpful. I thanked him and went back to work, doing some practicing for tomorrow’s performance.
I had had a little trouble with drifting snow coming in the night before, so when I awoke at six fifty, I quickly got dressed up in all my tractor clothing—it was sixteen degrees outside--and started working on the road. My part was fine but there was a lot of snow out in the first pasture so I cleared some of that and then headed for the hay barn. I remembered the time I started slipping down that stretch and decided to head into the pasture and go around the hay barn. I thought I was far enough in to avoid a small ditch but as I dipped slightly into the declivity, the tractor wheels started spinning and I was stuck. Fortunately, I was able to use the bucket to help me get out, and I took a longer route to the top. I had no problem going down the hay barn hill and back up and it was easy to get back down the other side. I called Valley Propane and Raymond told me that they weren’t going to be able to get a truck all the way up to my house but one of the workers would meet me at the Seneca Hollow gate with the hundred pound tank. There he would help me transfer it to my truck and then help me set it up in the hollow. Raymond wasn’t sure when the truck could get there but said to call at eleven thirty. That was fine with me because my hands were numb and I just wanted to get back to the house and warm up.

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