Plowing and Plumbing

Our fifth day in the new house started with me losing my temper with the woodstove. I could not keep a fire lit in that thing to save my life. And with these temperatures, I'm kind of relying on it to do just that. There's a knack to this, I'm sure of it. I just hope we don't freeze before I figure it out. After four failed attempts, the fire finally took and held. With constant attention, I was able to keep it going, but unable to tend to much of anything else.

Later in the day, our snowplow guy showed up. It was almost 3:30 and already getting dark. Gotta love these short, SHORT days up at this latitude. I was expecting a pick-up truck with a plow mount, but what I found instead was a massive logging tractor called a Skidder,with a plow on one end and a grapple on the other. The tires alone were taller that I am. This beast meant business, and made short work of the snow piled up on our driveway and front yard. The lovely man driving it was in the lumber business, and during the slow winter months, hires out his services for greenies like us.

After he left, Jeff and I drove down the hill to leave the change of address form in the mailbox for the mail carrier. Turns out she had left a note of her own, asking us to raise our mailbox by 12 inches. Jeff left her a note promising to comply, once his tools arrived from California.

The following morning, the plumber came by to repair the water heater. Our heater is awkwardly located and hard to reach, so I was worried about the scope of the project. By some miracle, while he was wedged into that confined space, the plumber replaced SOMETHING that was bent and out of alignment. The pilot light lit and the heater sprang to life. YES!

The movers called just as the plumber was leaving. Jeff met them at the foot of the hill and drove them up to the house, where he broke the news that we would NOT be getting our belongings today, as the trucks would not make it up the hill. Or so we were told. After much deliberation, Jeff opted to rent a storage unit and have the movers unload there instead. We spent a very cold afternoon supervising the unloading of the truck. We were able to nab a few comforts, such as pillows, during the process, and throw those in our pickup.

It was nearly 4:30 before they finished and rolled out, so by the time we reached our driveway we had to chain up the tires in the dark. It was cold, and frustrating, and a little scary, but by the grace of God we made it back up the hill. It was late, well after dinnertime, so we had reheated leftovers and crawled into our warm bed, now fitted with our own fluffy pillows.

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.  Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. Psalm 62:5,6