Welcome to Fern Valley

Here in central Alberta prime farm country,my husband Martin and I work together raising beef cattle and Appaloosa horses. Fern valley appaloosas have long been known for their quality of temperament conformation and color.I have recently rediscovered a love of writing and have published 2 collections of poetry. "Telling Tails" and Tails Trails and Campfire stories" . I look forward to a future spreading my wings as an author and as a horse woman .

Monday 16 January 2012

Merciless Monday

Let me open with, I don't actually dislike Mondays. I dislike some of them , but for the most part they are OK.After all you gotta get through  Monday to get to the rest of the week, and back to the weekend right?
That said , this one could have been better !

It started around 2am, when I stuck my nose out of the fleece sheets and comforters and noticed it was , well, more than a bit chilly. Now I often sleep with the window cracked open so I didn't immediately panic, just closed the window and prepared to snuggle down. But something seemed off , I could hear the furnace fan going but it was cool . By the time I decided to get up the thermostat  in the hall read 60F not bad , but a bit nippy. Went down to check the  furnace(no idea what I thought I could do ) then tried resetting the thermostat. no good and the temp was dropping . Grabbed a space heater and fired up the wood stove ,which made it livable in the kitchen and living room, but by then the temp in the hall and bedrooms had dropped to 54F .
Bout then I got worried about pipes and such and gave in and called for help . The furnace tech arrived at 4 am. And I have to say,wow! what a nice fellow , up at  that time of day and driving in  -holycrapitscold!
Apparently my meter had frozen?? who knew that could happen? Lucky I called because while the house might have been OK the barn is not as well insulated and the pipes more than likely would have frozen , causing at best frozen waterers and at worst ...

All fixed and working by shortly after 5 . I tried to go back to bed , but uit was still darn cold in the house so not a lot of sleep .All things considered though it could have been worse . Funny thing , I thought of later, here I was alone , letting a total stranger into my house at 4 in the morning ,in my pj's not to say I wasn't covered trust me I had on dang near everything I owned at that point ! But really not a common occurrence . Glad he was such a nice ,non creepy guy!
Today was nasty cold again , I have been getting away with  just a light flannel jacket and vest for quite a while now , but today was definitely a Carharrt day! Don't know what it is about those coats , but they are awesome!
Winston is still happy to be outside nekked but Skeeter is having trouble , even with his sweater and boots he is not lingering . I actually too k the truck to check waterers this evening , as it was just too much for him to walk all the  way there and back!

Stay safe , stay warm! (I plan too!)

16 comments:

Ami said...

:::sending warm hugs:::

So glad you got the furnace going and you're not freezing your noonies off!!

GoLightly said...

Wow, you are one prescient person, aren't ya! Thank heavens for your nose-thermostat!!!
wow...
whew...
another lazy day in the country;)
Hope you can catch up on some zzzz's!

Jeni said...

Very happy the furnace thing was a simple thing. I can't even imagine the cold you guys are getting.

I don't blame Skeeter - I mean you did describe it as "holycrapitscold" !

Shirley said...

I bet the furnace techs are busy these days, that's pretty good that they come out in the middle of the night.
You stay warm and safe yourself!

Crystal said...

Wow that sounds so cold! I remember a couple years ago when our furnace went out but we hd a small one to keep the house from freezing but thats about it. Sure nice you had a wood stove and some doggys to keep you warm till he got there. I been trying to stay inside if at all possible.

sally said...

Yay for men that dont sleep and can come fix things .....glad you got it all sorted!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

Wow! What a sport for him to come out at 4:00 AM. It's really scary and dangerous to have your heat go out in the winter and your air conditioning to go out in summer. Sometimes I wonder how we as humans would survive in such extreme temperatures without the help of conveniences.

I'm glad you mentioned the coat. I'm looking at their website now. I did finally get my new coat, but it's not warm because the people who order coats for our stores are mostly from sunny, warm California. My husband suggested I talk to bloggers in Canada to see what they are wearing. Now I know. The best coat he ever owned was stocked in a store in northern Minnesota. He's kept it for the past 30 years!

Sherry Sikstrom said...

they really are a great coat , there are several varieties. I have the bomber style but in a couple sizes larger so I can wear an extra vest and my bibs if I want and still move. they funny thing is they are lined but don't look thick or particularly warm but that thick canvas outer shell does something special!

Reddunappy said...

Wow I dont know any tech that would come out at 4am!!!

Still spitting snow here, but not that cold supposed to be 40F today. Above 500ft they are getting a few inches of snow.

Nicole said...

Wow, I didn't know people would come out like that at 4am but I'm glad he got you all better!

Cut-N-Jump said...

Glad you got the situation sorted out in a hurry and glad the guy could make it that fast.

Carharts are a Godsend! Sorry, but you won't be finding my ass in Canada during the winter. Too flippin' cold for me. Doubt anyone could put up with my whining that long... I would be parked by or on the stove and adding wood constantly.

NuzMuz- when we moved in our place- the damn unit went out at least once each season. Right in the middle of the summer, right in the middle of our winter, every. damn. season. just like clockwork. It really sucks when that happens!

kden said...

At least you were paying attention. Some might just think it's cold and not bother to call until it was too late. We have winds a howlin' today and expecting a big snow storm tomorrow. I can feel more drafts in the house than heat today.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow! What a crazy Monday for sure.
We keep our thermostat around 55 F during the winter, it wouldn't have noticed it getting cold until it got down to around 49-50 F, and then I'd have been freaking. lol!
Even when the temps are down to the single digits and teens outside, our furnace rarely comes on, especially during the day and it rarely ever feels cold. We do have an electric Amish made fireplace heater that does an awesome job heating the majority of the house and a couple space heaters for the back bedrooms. But the warmth is mostly because we have a passive solar house with the majority of our large windows facing southeast, so they get all of the sun all day. And then we have large tile floors that absorb the sunshine all day and disperse it at night.
Many houses in New Mexico utilize the sun this way during the winter. It really helps save money for heating that's for sure.

~Lisa

Sherry Sikstrom said...

furnace worked wonderfully well last night! slept alll night!

Cheyenne said...

yay for non creepy furnaces guys...but yes, holy crapoly it's cold and I can't believe you were without the furnace for awhile. Our house is SO OLD, that it's totally freezing everywhere even with the furnace running...the wind just whips through the windows. It stays nice and cozy around the stove, but too much heat seeps out everywhere else.

Mikey said...

Ohhh brrrr! I'm glad you got it all fixed, but I can imagine how it felt while it was happening.