To Great Falls and (surprise!) back to the farm

Sometimes country living has its charms and sometimes it has its hassles. Today was a hassle day. We got back to our place from Great Falls today and turned the heat back up. I had turned the thermostat way down when we left to save gas. We were busy doing this and that and neither of us ever realized that the fan didn't kick on. After a few hours we started to realize that it was still a little nippy in the apartment. I checked thermometer and, sure enough, it was 60 degrees inside. Not terrible but not putting-a-baby-to-bed cozy. The real problem, though, is that that meant the heater wasn't working.

I headed down to the furnace with a flashlight and could definitely tell that there was no pilot light. For a number of reasons, mostly involving an attachment to my eyebrows, I decided to have our landlady's son help me re-light it. He came over but we couldn't get it. Now, I checked the propane level a few days ago and it was at 5%. That sounds low but it's a 2000 gallon tank so that means we should have 1o0 gallons. We've purchased 300 total gallons since we've been here (at a cost of over $750 I should add).

Well it's starting to look like the gauge gets stuck at around 5%. Either that or, as Dale pointed out, that little gas is not giving a 2000 gallon tank adequate pressure to stay lit. Whatever the case, we need more propane or our furnace won't work. So we are back at the farm for the night. Hopefully I can find a kind soul at the local utility in Valier to come bring us some propane on a Sunday.

In other news, we had a fun and productive day in Great Falls. We got some new foods (prunes and pear juice) for Georgie and some basics for us. Also picked up a bottle of Samuel Smith's Winter Warmer ale. I was going to have it tonight but left it at home when we abandoned ship.