A few loose ends to catch up in the various sagas of life “from the front porch“…

Last we left the motorhome, I had just finished tearing off the steps by navigating too close to a stump with steps that would not totally retract. I had been on my way for propane in my desire to keep the motorhome stocked and ready to roll. After the step incident, I emptied all freezable items for that night. The next day, the roads were still in no shape to go out. I looked at the weather for the next week and finally sighed, squared my shoulders and realized that for the sake of my budget and sanity, I needed to abandon the idea of keeping things ready to go. The last thing to do was empty the fresh water tank – 75 gallons of water to go somewhere on frozen ground…my own private ice rink I thought. So, I opened up a bit more of the turnaround with the snowblower – which was still working then! -backed the motorhome into that area away from anywhere anyone had to drive or walk and drained the tank. Not as bad as I thought – the water was warm enough to sieve into the ground and there was no ice rink after all.

As for the steps, my insurance company will pay for the steps, the body work and any other damage underneath (less my deductible). I just have to get the motorhome to Missoula, 110 miles away. Thankfully, the agent is in Missoula and fully understands the difficulty so it will happen when it happens.

The snowblower is still in the garage waiting pickup if we get a break between storms. Adam is plowing my driveway and the up side is he shows up and it takes about 15 minutes and I’m watching from inside. The downside is my driveway is getting narrower each time. So is the road. The nature of plowing when you can’t plow a “shoulder”.

My roof…

Friday, I shoveled the porch and up to the bath vent. I looked up there several times during the day at the amount of snow…and looked again at the weather forecast. 3 storms due back to back and the 2nd and 3rd due to be a rain/snow mix. You can see that the original cabin was the back half and had a normal roof. When the front half was added, the roof was extended instead of redone …too flat.

Even the snow bird’s house had a lot of snow, but they have a proper pitched roof for snow country!

I had picked up a flyer at the grocery with a number for a guy who shovelled roofs. I called. He and a helper showed up on Saturday.

Roof shoveled and the snow cave got bigger.

The other situation that was getting a bit grim was the state of my firewood supply. Most of “this year’s” 3 cords of wood was waiting to be split…tarped, but lying under nearly 3 feet of snow. The various work and other committments of mine and my friends’ who are helping got away from us. I had about 2 weeks of firewood left on Saturday. I am not dependent on firewood for heat. My little house has electric baseboard heaters which are efficient, clean and quiet. I like the wood heat, though and I like having backup heating and cooking ability should we lose power. I was facing not burning wood and keeping the 2 weeks firewood as my backup.

I headed into Bigfork on a quick errand. At the shopping center there are often 2 or 3 pickups with firewood waiting to be sold. I noticed this day that there was a particularly nice looking load – split in sizes that I wouldn’t have to split further.

Randy and his son Boaz followed me home. They have the absolutely nicest log rack I have ever seen! Also the best truck I’ve ever had deliver firewood. The first time I bought firewood, the delivery truck had no hood and no muffler. The second time, the guy had a pet bobcat with him. And so on…it has always been interesting. Randy and his son have a small building company. The wood came from a job site – more than they needed for their family.

My firewood situation is not quite so desparate now. This is 10-12 weeks supply and hopefully, I’ll be able to get to my stash if this runs low before spring.

Karl and Bob – they had some catching up to do also:

Bob catching up on the chow and Karl on his napping…

… on his increasingly closed in front porch.