Friday

The Heat is On

We burn wood for heat at home and at the cabin.  Last week when we went home for my uncle’s funeral, we started up the little wall furnace so the cabin wouldn’t get too cold while we were gone.  We got back just before dark and as soon as we opened the door, the smell of propane just about knocked us over.   Jim looked around and couldn’t see any obvious problem and decided to call in a professional.  We knew this was nothing to mess around with.  Didn’t want to risk the place blowing up or all of us getting carbon monoxide poisoning.

Long story short, the repair man arrived at exactly the scheduled time, cleaned this, blew out that, looked at the propane tank, looked at the venting, ran the furnace, shut it off, ran it again and finally said he should put a big red X on it and say to never run it again.  He said it could be used to heat up the place if we were to leave while that was happening.  It would also kill any mice in the process.  First of all, we don’t have mice and secondly, we don’t want to risk anything by using this ancient little furnace.

ComfortZone_Infrared_Heater_1500PWe heard so many good things about infrared heaters that we decided to get one for our backup heat source.  Great decision, in my opinion.  It’s small, quiet and economical to run.  We don’t have to rewire, revent or remove the old one.   Just plug it in, set the temperature and let it do it’s thing.


A couple other good things happened this week. 
1. We didn’t get any phone calls about having to go back home for a funeral. 
2. A new cell tower was activated and we’re right on the end of it’s service range.  It won’t be long and another one that’s about 5 miles closer will be activated.  Now to decide what kind of cell phone to buy.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
3. We had some super weather this week and got out and enjoyed it.  Yesterday was sunny and windy.  Today is cool and cloudy.  Tomorrow & Sunday could bring that dreaded 4 letter word that starts with S, ends with W and has NO in the middle.
And again, I want to thank everyone for all you kind words about my Uncle Wally.  He was a real treasure.

16 comments:

Beth said...

Thank heaven you found out what was wrong with your furnace.
I had ATT&T cell phone sevice for many years. When I moved here I gave it up and bought a tracfone. Best decision for me as I use my cell phone only for use in the car. I think I would go for a better one for use at the cabin.

Cindy said...

I forgot to mention, both of the new towers are AT&T if that makes any difference. I really know nothing about cell phones, but want to get a good one with all the bells and whistles.

GreatGranny said...

Nice looking heater and glad y'all caught the problem in time. Sorry about your Uncle's passing. I seem to be behind.

john bord said...

AT&T has phone stores and they have authorized dealers, either can help you with a good cell phone.
Do you want to access the web on your phone, check e-mails, text.... etc.
Other thing to look at is a package deal to use the phone service for the computer ISP access, if you use a laptop. There are modules to plug into the computer and there ya are on the internet... any place.

Neat looking little stove.
Sorry about your loss.

JennyD said...

Good Lorddddd, Cindy, that was really scarey about the heater! I'm glad that one is going to the great heater in the sky now. As far as cell phones go, I'm a blank because I only carry one for an emergency, I never just sit and talk on it for talking. But I think John's idea is the best: bundled packages, and if you're looking for all the bells and whistles like you say, then that's the way to go. The new phones like that do everything but cook your dinner and wash the dishes. Shoot, by the time I hit publish on this, they might do that,too.
By the way, I love that picture of Molly and I'm totally enthralled over your Flicker slide show. Really good stuff!

Unknown said...

I am so glad nothing happened to you guys or your cabin. Wasn't there a cabin fire not long ago down the road from you? My friend has one of those heaters in her salon and she loves it! Thank you for offering to give for the Christmas boxes but it seems as of Tuesday the needs were met for so many boxes. Truly thank you for offering. I just love the yogurt machines. The honey does add the oohlah laah to it.

Sherry said...

OMG Cindy Thank God you were away when the furnace went on the fritz.

Elaine said...

iPhone you'll love it!

Unknown said...

Oh I'm glad you got that heater looked at Cindy. Can't risk that thing catching the cabin on fire. I've never seen an infrared heater like that but I hope it does the trick and keeps you guys warm on those cold Wisconsin nights.
Woo-Hoo for better cell service! AT&T service sucks around here so most people are Verizon.

CAROLDEE said...

WHEW..Sis.... what a close call you two had..God was good and the angels were watching over you both.
That's the same heater we have and we have two of them.. Great investment you are right about that..especially that feature where you can program it to come on and off at a desired temp etc.. I loveee that! My tracfone is the flip kind and I love it..it doesn't have all THAT many bells though..it does what I want it to. My E READER does the rest for me. Snowwww awww it is just too soon for me maybe.. I just got spoiled with all this warmer stuff we have had. It will be a long enough winter without the white stuff showing up in Nov in my opinion.
Stay warm, safe and well Sis!

JennyD said...

Cindy, I ran back over to tell you about the vid since you couldn't watch it. That squirrel climbs up the birdfeeders every day and cleans them all out, and every day I'm out there yelling at him to get down. Well, he got the hint and has been doing this (on the vid) for a week. He climbs into the Leland Cypress tree, works his way out onto the branch and to the end of the frond. He starts bouncing until he gets enough leverage to trampoline himself to the feeder. He grabs the feeder, grabs the seeds and down the branch goes with him on it...then back up, and back down. The "up" part gets higher and faster and it cracks me up. Towards the end he falls but he's still on the branch, so he flails for a split second and then he's upright again and woooooweeeee the branch starts trampolining again. So funny.

JennyD said...

Shoot, I might as well tell u about the next one. I started this "tour" of my house -- living room, hallway, a glance up the stairs and into the dining room. Everything was working out until I got to the big secretary that I have changed into a china press. In the vid, I'm trying to explain that and then decide since it's so tall, I should turn my camera sideways, LOL. Well, the entire secretary and the explanation are all done completely sideways and you have to lean your hear onto your left shoulder to watch it. Like I said in my own comment: I should be banned from camera use.

JennyD said...

Sheesh, that's "lean your EAR" onto your left shoulder. You probably already figured that out.
Maybe I should be banned from typing, too.

JennyD said...

Oh good grief, I'm back. Now I'm responding to the "wine". Yes, I love Zin (and even in the box, lol), and then I had another favorite, Beringer's Chenin Blanc. Now that one stayed my fav for the last 3 yrs until a month or so ago when a wine steward had me try Vouvrez Monte--something. It is better than heaven, Cindy; you've got to try it. I can't even look at the entire name since I polished it off at Lee's last night, lol. This coming week when I buy another bottle of it, I'll let you know the full name, but it is some kinda good.
Now for the pasta dish. For that dish, I'd go with a red and it would be a wine from Chili called Malbec. Great wine and my fav of all the reds. Anytime you need a red, grab it.

JennyD said...

Well, I'm in shame for being back so quickly, but I have news. First, the French wine is Vouvray, Monmousseau. BUT, my neighbor brought me a new wine today after her son bought an entire case. She thought he was crazy until she tasted it and then brought me a bottle. I just opened it and oh my worddddd, this is too good! It's a white from Calif and it's called Smoking Loon Chardonnay. You have GOT to try this.....yummmmmm.

JennyD said...

I cannot believe how many times I've come back to see you the last few days! I saw your note about Chrome. I dl'd it as an extra browser (IE is now totally dead) and you're right, it's lightening. The only problem I had, and it's an important one for me, is that my Norton's won't synch with it. I read a bunch of comments on just that from others. They went back to IE because of it, but I'm going to bounce back and forth between Chrome and Firefox. My Norton's DOES synch with Firefox. Man, what a grueling last 24 hours, ugh.

 
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