About December
Full Moon Dec. 7th
Holidays
Pearl
Harbor Day
Hanukkah
Christmas
Boxing Day
Kwanzaa
Read a New Book Month
Human Rights Month
Calendar
Awareness Month
National Handwashing Awareness Week
National Fruit Cake Month
Symbols of December
A couple of months ago (Sept. 18) I posted a piece called "End of an Era" wherein I talked about our decision to stop burning wood. Between then and now we spent gathering information on what we were going to do and how much it would cost.
Well, we have finally gotten to the point where we have installed two propane burning fireplaces-one in the living room and one in the family room.
There is still a little work to be done. The one in the family room is missing a piece of trim along the bottom where there's a gap between the unit and the hearth. The one in the living room has yet to be tiled but that is going to take place this coming Monday.
When everything is said and done, I will post pictures. For now we have been using both units in the evening.
Thus far I can report the pros and cons to having made this switch.
Pros: Propane is much cleaner than a wood burning stove. Propane requires no effort on my part whereas burning wood did. Propane heat is much easier to regulate.
Cons: Burning wood required very little in costs. I used a little gas for my chain saw and log splitter and the rest was sweat. I managed to find ample sources of wood for free. Propane costs about $3.50 a gallon. I have two tanks: a 500 gallon tank which also supplies our standby generator and a 100 gallon tank for the fireplace in the living room. This being the first season using propane I don't have a handle on costs yet but I do know that the price of heating oil is very high so we should see a savings but it's still not free like wood was.
Stay tuned for pictures when everything is done.
Slightly over a week ago I learned of the loss of a very good friend. I had worked with this person for many years during my teaching years. Sandi and I became friends with her and her husband and visited them often when we were at our condo in Florida. To add insult to injury her husband had passed away just a few weeks before she did. They were very good friends. We will miss them.
No sooner did that happen then we received the very sad news that our daughter's family lost their dog to an unexpected illness. Daisy was a yellow lab and a very sweet dog. We dog sat for her on many occasions and in fact were expecting to have her over the Thanksgiving holiday.
There are some who will read this and say it's just a dog. But pets are not 'just' pets. Their loss is painful for the people who loved them. This happened on Saturday November 12th.
Finally, in just one month we will be marking the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy. The Sandy Hook memorial recently opened to the public. I haven't seen it yet but will soon. While it's 10 years that have passed it's still very fresh in my mind. So it has been a rough couple of weeks.
Let's hope the rest of November unfolds without further events like this.
