Author: Rae

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A Not Untypical Day For Here

As I posted on Facebook, I had the day from hell yesterday. Just about every winter calamity came together, most notably that it was so cold during the night of Sunday to Monday that the propane wouldn’t liquify so it was 40F in the rig Monday morning and it was so cold Monday that I never got the temp to stay higher than 50. I also had to spend almost two hours digging my way out of the driveway and the laneway and I had to drive to town and back in whiteout conditions.

The biggest mistake I made yesterday was to repark the truck in the garage instead of on Main Street. When I went outside today, all the dry powder from the the surrounding lots had blown in my driveway and I had almost two feet of hard packed snow where yesterday there was bare ground. A solid hour of moving snow got rid of that and I got my truck into an alley where it promptly floundered in snow. It took two hours to get it out (note to self: extra weight over the rear axles + carpets for traction + prayers to the driving gods + tranny in second).

So all that to say that I parked my truck on Main Street this afternoon so I can go out tomorrow to get more propane and run other errands without wasting time getting myself dug out.

Which brings me to the subject of this post (I apologize to all the Facebookers who had to endure the recap *g*).

Caroline emailed me late afternoon to ask if I was okay since my truck was parked on Main Street. I replied with a short version of my story and said that I now needed a sled to haul my propane tanks. She said I could borrow theirs. I replied that I would be right over to get it so that I could go to town tomorrow without stopping at their place first. So I went over there around 4:30 thinking I was just going to get a sled.

I agreed to take off my boots, coat, and hat so I could have a cup of coffee. Laura arrived shortly thereafter and it was so warm by the wood stove that I took off my snow pants and extra sweater. I also accepted another cup of coffee.

Then Charles brought out the wine. Or maybe Caroline invited us for supper before that. I’m not sure. But wine and an invitation to stay for dinner happened.

Much wine drinking ensued. Then Caroline made sure we were well fed with a homemade pizza topped with pineapple, ham, and red onion, which just happens to be my favourite way to have pizza. She even remembered not to put mushrooms on my slices.

More wine drinking ensued. Then Caroline brought out the chocolate, which required the consumption of more wine (I should pause here to say I was having small glasses, so I probably had two glasses total over four hours, fine for a work night!).

And then Laura looked at her watched and went, “Crap! It’s 10 to 9!” So we bundled up to trundle home.

As I headed out the door, I said to Caroline, “I’m sure I had a reason to come here besides getting warm, stuffed, and drunk.”

We had to think for a minute about what that reason was.

I love these people.

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Enough

Happy 2014 to all my readers!

I just wanted to check in to say that spending the winter in Saskatchewan in an RV continues to feel like one of the smarter decisions I’ve made in the past five years!

L is back on the beach in Texas and it’s apparently ‘freezing’, and the weather in New Orleans and Alabama where Croft and Norma are isn’t much better. New Mexico and Arizona aren’t having stellar winters either. Really, I’m better off plugged into shore power here, working like crazy, and falling into a reasonably predictable budget. I wouldn’t want another spring like last year, stuck below an unrelenting line of bad weather.

The thing that I’ve figured out in the last five years is when something is enough. I have seen so much of this continent in half a decade. It is just so cool to be able to say ‘when I was in Tuktoyaktuk’ or ‘the weather in Florida was dreadful last year when I was there.’ That’s enough for now.

I know I’ll start traveling again soon, but I have accumulated so many memories since 2008 that they can nourish me a while longer. I can finally savour being ‘here’ because I’m not dreaming of being ‘there.’ That is the curse of the nomad, to always be looking ahead to the next stop, which can sometimes make it difficult to enjoy the present.

Memories of travel do more to lighten my mood than anything else. The other night, a cousin emailed to ask me about my trip to Scotland in ’98. Followed a half hour of reminiscing that made my day. Even though by this summer it will have been 16 years since that trip, I was transported back there by my cousin’s questions. I was back on that parapet of Stirling castle at sunset munching on a snack as I journaled. I found myself walking around in circles in Glasgow looking for food my first night there. The smell of the Culloden battlefield wafted over me. I even turned green remembering the choppy North Sea crossing to the Orkney Islands.

My travel memories are my wealth and my coffers are full. If you cannot understand how important they are to me, how they enrich my existence, I cannot make you understand. But they are what matter most to me.

There will come a day in short order when my existing memories will no longer be enough and I will find myself plotting a new journey. For right now, they are all I need to sustain me through a bitter, yet beautiful, winter, because here was also part of the dream, life on the prairie in all seasons. I know that I will one day find myself in Cairo or any other warm and bustling city and reminiscing fondly of my cold and contemplative winter on the Saskatchewan plains.

But as I sit here today, to quote a line from my favourite movie of 2012, “This is enough. This is… it’s more than enough for now.”

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I’m Really Okay!

After some recent comments and emails, I want to go on record to say that, yes, it’s bloody cold but I am more comfortable in Miranda in these temps than I ever was during a warmer BC winter!

The winter here has been very dry. I’m not struggling with humidity and condensation and the cold hasn’t seeped into my bones. I have no trouble whatsoever focusing on work. At night, I use my electric blanket to keep toasty and except for the few nights where I’ve had to switch propane tanks, I’ve been sleeping very soundly.

It’s been very cold all over the continent the last week or so. If I had been down south, I would have been facing unexpected propane expenses and RV park fees and would not have been able to do the kind of work hours I’m doing now to make up for any of that.

I can honestly say that I’d rather be here right now where I’m toasty, well situated, surrounded by friends,  able to work overtime, and able to budget to a point than to be in another country facing a very long trip through erratic weather while short on funds as one calamity piles onto another like it was this past spring.

So I appreciate the concern everyone has expressed but I’m not just putting on a brave face. I’m really okay!

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Storm Watch

The Arctic freeze is receding, but leaving behind it an impending dump of snow. News of this came too late yesterday to go out for propane so I knew I needed to squeeze in a town run first thing this morning.

As it turns out, I had 25lbs of propane left between all my tanks but I was unable to run any one of them for any length of time last night. It looks like in temperatures below -30C I can only use up half of each of my 20lb tanks and about two thirds of my 30lb. I still get enough gas from them to light the stove, but not to feed the furnace. Anyway, it’s definitely warmer today and going into a warming trend, so I’m not worried about this in the least.

I left home at about 9:00 this morning into a very dark and ominous sky. The road out of the hamlet to the highway was less icy than it was on Friday so I made it to town quickly. The snow started to come down as I pulled into the Co-Op.

I’m posted a few times about how I’ve been caught a number of times with very little gas in the truck tank since I forget to check the gauge regularly. Well, I impressed myself this morning when I had the foresight to see how I was doing for gas and saw that I was nearly in the red, a huge no-no for winter conditions in rural country. So I got gas while my propane tanks were being filled, then I went inside for a coffee.

Visibility coming home was fine on the road although I couldn’t see far beyond the road, the sky was so low and heavy. The snow was just blowing though, so the roads were clear and I got home without any issues. The whole trip took about an hour and fifteen minutes, which is really good and probably a record for needing to get three propane tanks filled. This past summer, I learned that I can drive to town, get one tank filled, and drive straight back home in exactly one hour.

Well, I’d better get to work. Being three hours behind is not a good way to start the week!

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A Most Excellent Night’s Sleep

It appears that the Arctic front is on its way out as it is a full 10 degrees warmer this morning than it’s been in several days. I slept straight through the night and awoke to a toasty rig. Yay!

I’m posting again today to address some more comments.

The first one is regarding the rental of a large external propane tank. I have explained this situation so many times I don’t even know if I’ve done it in a post or not, but I’ll say it again: tank rentals are not available here. In fact, I’m even lucky to have a propane refill place within less than 150KM as the Co-Op considered just doing tank exchanges.

Second of all, I appreciate the unnecessary concern about the propane tanks depressurizing after a period of use in super cold weather, but I really don’t see what the fuss is all about. The explanation is clear (so there’s nothing to troubleshoot), the easiest resolution (getting a larger tank) is not possible, and the duration of the problem is short and finite (two nights and two days). To me, it really hasn’t be a huge deal and certainly nothing to lose sleep over beyond the physical fact of having to get up to switch tanks.

I’m just glad to have this information for future cold snaps that we may have and I know that a lot of you have learned something from my experience.

Here’s how the next 14 days are shaping up to be. I’ve been watching the 14-day trend for a bit and it keeps improving. This is a-ok and very manageable!

daily trend