Thursday, March 5, 2009

Part 5, It's a cold, cold world and you can never truly prepare.

We love snow, there I said it. I would live to regret those words.
Our Real Estate Agent said they didn't really get that much snow up there anymore, our Insurance agent said the same thing. Again and again we heard that story. We were disappointed after all, we love snow, we missed it in Delaware. I still have fond memories of the Blizzard of '78, (I was much much younger)
We were still living in Delaware, travelling back and forth, bringing many truck loads of stuff each time. We decided that Thanksgiving would be great at the new house. Mom and I and the kids got there the week before, it started snowing and didn't stop until mid February. The most snow they have had in years evidently.
Meanwhile we were warm and cozy in our new house, still travelling back and forth to Delaware. We spent Christmas in Delaware.
When we got back to Wellsboro, it continued to snow. And then we got our first Gas bill, that was an eye opener. We had been used to electric heat, and had always heard how much better gas heat was. It was much more expensive than I realized. We hadn't factored in double utilities in our plans. The solution, lower the thermostat and heat more with the wood stove, after all that was what it was for. One part of the house is nice and toasty, one part refrigerator like.
It's ok, we can adjust, we are the new pioneers. Then the wood began to run out, the cold wasn't as much fun and we were tired. Bryan still splits his weekends between Delaware and Pennsylvania.
In early February we began to run out of wood, easy enough, call for more. Problem, not many people have cord wood that is seasoned. I was finally able to get 2 cords. Well that is what I was charged a lot for, we are still not sure we got what we paid for. Not only was this wood expensive, I am still not sure what kind it is, and why it is so difficult to burn. But, we are Pioneers and we will survive.
Next year we will plan better and be a little more prepared. We hope.

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