[duaneb]

quote:Originally posted by Wayne and Carolyn Mathews

Oh my word, have we ever been putting our Montana through the "winterizing" test. We were hit with an Arctic blast 2 days ago and the temperature hasn't been above freezing since then. In fact, out where we live, we haven't had a temp in the above-zero range for days. When you see the temperature for Dillon in the Weather Gizmo below, subtract 10 to 15 degrees and you'll have our temperature. We're 35 miles south of town, on the west side of Clark Canyon Reservoir. Since my last post, we moved in a 250-gallon propane tank, ending our tanks-to-town every other day trips. We also moved in two Porta-Potties (HIS/HERS) because we're skirted and it's a full-day's job to unskirt, pull the rig to town, dump the tanks, get back, and reskirt before dark--too much trouble and I'm still teaching, so we were losing a day every weekend to dump tanks. (Moving in those Porta-Potties surely did cut down on our drop-in company!) We can get water from our well, but we fill and then disconnect because of the distance from the well and the freezing temperatures; heat tape to cover the 200 feet of hose from the well to the rig is cost-prohibative, and a foam wrap is useless here. We've lost the hot water occasionally, but ice-cold water showers and shampoos can be tolerated if absolutely necessary. The photos below were taken at 7:45 AM this morning, January 22, before I left for work. (If you're wondering, no, the Porta-Potties have no heat in them, and yes, sprinting out to them during the night, with the coyotes howling and the ever-present threat of wolves, is an adventure. Wolves? Yes. Apparently they forgot they were supposed to stay in Yellowstone National Park. We're currently having a bit of a livestock crisis because several aggressive packs have moved into our area.)

Back to grading AP Literature essays . . . .Carolyn