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Domestication
Nov. 21st, 2012 08:32 am(In case you saw my original note about the vanishing post about taking the train from the Bay Area up to Reno through the snow, but not the update: the post was mis-dated. You can read it here if you're interested.)
Not a whole lot happening in Fernley, which is fine. I have no family gathering this year for Thanksgiving, and we're not going anywhere, so, as Lisa put it, this is the first Thanksgiving she and I have had alone, and in our own house to boot. A turkey would be too big for the oven in the trailer, and too much food anyway, so we bought a duck instead. Lisa has never cooked a duck before, so she's nervously anticipating the challenge.
I'm working away here in my "office" in the living room, trying to get as much as I can done while also fighting bronchitis from the cold I picked up from my co-workers. It's fortunate for me that temperatures are a little warmer than expected, with almost no sub-freezing temperatures here. That's because the fireplace is out of commission. The front glass on the insert broke a while ago, and the attempt to install a replacement fireproof glass failed because the door itself is missing some of the pieces for keeping the glass in place.
Although the builder's plate on the fireplace is worn almost beyond recognition, Lisa was able to puzzle out the make of the fireplace (Country Flame) and we were able to find the manufacturer, or at least the company that acquired the brand. They helpfully wrote back to us with what measurements we need to take to see if the model we have is still part-compatible with what they make. It's possible we may need to replace the entire door, but that's almost certainly better than having to replace the entire insert. I'm glad we got this far, though, because initial searches for fireplace repair in the area were coming up with poor results. There's nothing we found in Fernley, and the first couple of places we contacted in Reno said that, despite ads claiming they serve "Northern Nevada" won't come out to Fernley to do repairs, only installations of new units.
In the meantime, we can't heat the living room by wood fire, which means we have lots of electric heaters going. The electric bill will be huge, no doubt, but we can offset that against not having to buy firewood at $550 per two cords delivered, with a known historical consumption of about 3 cords/winter.
Ironically, Lisa did get the repainting of the wood box finished. The old lid (which had warped and we had to replace) she put on the floor of the box to act as additional protection. She then moved 3/4 cord of firewood from the pile in the back of the house to the wood box, one piece at a time because her back had been bothering her. That's a lot of work! But when we have a working fireplace again (which I suspect won't be until sometime in 2013), we'll have firewood convenient to burning in it.
Not a whole lot happening in Fernley, which is fine. I have no family gathering this year for Thanksgiving, and we're not going anywhere, so, as Lisa put it, this is the first Thanksgiving she and I have had alone, and in our own house to boot. A turkey would be too big for the oven in the trailer, and too much food anyway, so we bought a duck instead. Lisa has never cooked a duck before, so she's nervously anticipating the challenge.
I'm working away here in my "office" in the living room, trying to get as much as I can done while also fighting bronchitis from the cold I picked up from my co-workers. It's fortunate for me that temperatures are a little warmer than expected, with almost no sub-freezing temperatures here. That's because the fireplace is out of commission. The front glass on the insert broke a while ago, and the attempt to install a replacement fireproof glass failed because the door itself is missing some of the pieces for keeping the glass in place.
Although the builder's plate on the fireplace is worn almost beyond recognition, Lisa was able to puzzle out the make of the fireplace (Country Flame) and we were able to find the manufacturer, or at least the company that acquired the brand. They helpfully wrote back to us with what measurements we need to take to see if the model we have is still part-compatible with what they make. It's possible we may need to replace the entire door, but that's almost certainly better than having to replace the entire insert. I'm glad we got this far, though, because initial searches for fireplace repair in the area were coming up with poor results. There's nothing we found in Fernley, and the first couple of places we contacted in Reno said that, despite ads claiming they serve "Northern Nevada" won't come out to Fernley to do repairs, only installations of new units.
In the meantime, we can't heat the living room by wood fire, which means we have lots of electric heaters going. The electric bill will be huge, no doubt, but we can offset that against not having to buy firewood at $550 per two cords delivered, with a known historical consumption of about 3 cords/winter.
Ironically, Lisa did get the repainting of the wood box finished. The old lid (which had warped and we had to replace) she put on the floor of the box to act as additional protection. She then moved 3/4 cord of firewood from the pile in the back of the house to the wood box, one piece at a time because her back had been bothering her. That's a lot of work! But when we have a working fireplace again (which I suspect won't be until sometime in 2013), we'll have firewood convenient to burning in it.
