Liquid propane gas, that is, and not a minute too soon, either! I knew we were getting low on propane, but I wasn’t sure exactly how low. Our tanks don’t have a gauge on them. There’s just this little indicator that turns red when one tank is empty, and then a switch flips over and starts the other tank going automatically. Then the indicator turns green again. It slowly turns red as the last tank empties. The indicator has been getting less and less green this past week as it has cooled down and we’ve been using the heater.
As it turns out, we had precisely enough propane left to last until I got home from work today. Lex texted me when I was on my home to tell me that the furnace had stopped producing heat. When I got home, I opened up the door to the tanks and proceeded to try and figure out how to unhitch them. It was no big whoops. All I had to do was turn the tanks off then unscrew the hoses. There was an arm holding the tanks in place, so I loosened the nut that secured the arm, and the tanks slipped right out. I loaded them into the backseat of my car and took them a couple of miles up the road to North Point Fuel, the only place nearby that I know of that sells propane.
I knew we had two thirty pound tanks. What I didn’t understand is that propane is sold by the gallon, not the pound. When the toothless, shaggily-bearded, and seemingly good-natured station attendant told me that propane was $5.00 a gallon (I heard pounds), I nearly flipped. Then he explained that it would only cost $30 to fill each of my tanks. What? That math doesn’t work out. I didn’t care. All I knew is that the price seemed a lot cheaper than I expected.
When I got home, I looked up how many gallons a 30 lb. tanks would hold. It turns out each gallon weighs 4.2 pounds, so a 30lb tank holds a bit over 7 gallons. Ooooh! So $30 for the tank made a bit more sense. That works out to about $4.25 a gallon, so it actually was a bargain over the cost I was initially cited.
The real test of how good a deal it all was will be dependent on how long the tanks last with the heater running all the time. We’ve got a space heater to supplement, and it helps, especially at night, but I’m still trying to keep the thermostat around 72 degrees during the day and about 67 at night.
Now that we have propane, the next task will be to do the winterizing I mentioned in the last post. I just bought some heat tape tonight, and I have the window insulating film, the weather stripping, foam pipe insulation, insulating tape…everything I need to seal this thing against the cold. I’m going to try to get as much as I can done tomorrow, but I can’t seal up too many of the windows. It’s supposed to warm up into the 60s again next week. We’ll probably need to open the windows until it cools down again.
Last week we had the fellow from We Come 2 U RV Repair come out and take a look at the water that was pooling in the underbelly of the RV. Turns out it was fresh water after all, the fresh water that had been leaking from the sump cover. As for that sump cover, I ordered a new one by mail and managed to get it on without beating it with a hammer. What a difference having a rubber o-ring makes! No more leaks and fresh water filters. Our water pressure is back where it belongs, and I’m not having to empty a bucket twice a day from under the RV.
The repairman also checked our sewer valves and pronounced them functional. I’m not so sure about that, actually. The outflow valve still has water sitting in it whenever I open it, and it shouldn’t if the holding tank valves are working properly. Oh, well, hopefully the whole mess doesn’t freeze up this winter.
Speaking of, forecasters are saying that the Atlantic Coast will be seeing a hard winter this year. Great. Apparently, El Nino has something to do with it. Of course, it seems El Nino has something to do with it whenever something goes awry meteorologically speaking. I’m really hoping the forecasters are wrong. It’d be nice if our first winter in the RV wasn’t the coldest and snowiest we’ve seen since moving to Maryland. I’ll do all I can to prevent freezing and to insulate the interior. Beyond that, I can only hope!
In other news, we got a new puppy last week. Her name is Ivy, and she’s a basenji/pekingese/poodle mix.
Ivy mugs for the camera
To me, she looks more like a Chihuahua/dachshund mix, tiny at a little over eight pounds, short-haired, floppy-eared, stubby-legged, and ornery. Her former owners clearly loved her and spoiled her. She has some bad habits that need correction. She thinks she’s supposed to sleep in the bed under the covers, climb our shoulders, lick our ears, snatch food from our plates, and generally terrorize the neighborhood. Still, she’s cute as hell, and Otis took to playing with her right away. After a couple of days, even the cat, Motor, came out of hiding and approached her. Ivy and the cat aren’t exactly friends yet, but I think it’s just a matter of time.
Because she’s so thin and has such a fine coat, we’ve taken to putting little dog sweaters on Ivy. I know, I know, but it is chilly near the floor in the RV, and she does shiver. Not from fear, though. That little dog is afraid of nothing. She’s a barker, too. The water bottle is going to get a workout squirting her every time she misbehaves.
She is pretty well housebroken, however. In the week she’s been here, she’s had only two accidents. We’re convinced the first happened when the cat scared the piss out of the dog, and the second (last night) was my fault. I didn’t give her enough time to do her business when I took her out for her final walk of the day. She tried to hold it until she couldn’t anymore. She had her accident by the front door, so she clearly knew she was supposed to go outside. She just doesn’t have the opposable thumbs necessary to open the door, and we were sound asleep when it all went down. As long as we stay on top of things, she does a fine job of waiting to go out. That’s a relief. Housebreaking from scratch is a serious pain.
We had to buy her a little harness because she chokes herself when we leash her collar. She does a better job walking on the lead with the harness, though she still tries to balk and plant her feet when she doesn’t want to walk anymore. We’ll get her to turn around eventually. Hopefully she’ll pick up some good habits from Otis (and not the other way around) soon. While Otis seems to enjoy Ivy’s company, they aren’t sleeping next to one another yet. She prefers to nod off on the couch, and Otis knows he can’t jump up on the couch unless we let him, so he ends up on the floor. She’s probably safer on the sofa; we can’t step on her in the middle of the night when we get up to go to the bathroom that way.
So with five live, breathing bodies in this small space, I figure we won’t freeze to death even if we do run out of propane again. All that respiration and body heat is bound to save us!
Tags: pets, plumbing, propane, puppy, repairs, rv, winterizing
[...] Our new puppy, Ivy, has brought us a great deal of joy since we got her in October. She has kept our older dog, [...]