It's Always Something

Thursday evening, as we were settling in to watch "The Taste", we realized that it was getting a bit chilly in Jumbo. Larry went back in the bedroom to check the thermostat and had to turn the furnace off and back on again in order to get it to come on. Usually this only happens if the battery is low, but it was fully charged, so we were a bit perplexed. When it did come on, it immediately shut off again. Oh no, this can't be good! Larry got down on the floor and peered into the furnace, poked around a bit, and determined that we must have a problem with the igniter. He took it out and discovered that it was covered with gunk, cleaned it off, put it back, and turned the furnace back on. It blew out some nice hot air for a bit, but soon the air turned cold. This is definitely not good! It seems to be one thing after another in this old behemoth! I couldn't help but be a bit depressed about the whole situation - sitting in the middle of a horse pasture, looking forward to a freezing night and morning, spending more money to fix this latest problem. Larry felt terrible. We both wondered if moving into Jumbo had been the right decision. Larry asked me if I wanted to spend the night in a motel, but I figured I could make it through the night - we have LOTS of blankets on the bed - and Friday was supposed to be a nice day. When the sun shines through the windows, it does tend to warm up pretty nicely inside Jumbo. Larry wrote down the part number of the igniter, and hoped to be able to find one sometime Friday.

Larry got up around 5:30 Friday morning, started the generator, and plugged in the little electric heater, facing it into the bedroom. At that point it was 12 degrees inside Jumbo - colder than it was outside. My car thermometer read 14 degrees! Duchess and I stayed under the covers until 7:30 when I let her out to go potty. It had gotten up to a balmy 20 degrees by then. She ran outside, did her business, came back in and made a beeline for the bed, where she curled back up under the covers. I put on my jacket and joined her. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I read awhile until Rachel called me around 8:30. We chatted for awhile and I let her know what was going on inside our big igloo. I wandered out into the living room  and opened the curtains to let the sun shine in. It was 40 degrees by then. I called Larry around 9:30 to let him know Duchess and I weren't frozen, and the warmth of the sun had risen the temperature to 60. Woohoo!!! Larry had found the part he needed, but it wasn't in stock and wouldn't be available until Monday. We figured we could make it through the weekend, since the daytime temps were supposed to be pretty high, and if for some reason replacing the igniter on Monday didn't do the trick, we would check into a motel for the first few days of the week, since the temperatures were going to be in the low twenties during the days and in the teens at night. That sounded good to me!!!

That afternoon Larry went to Dick's Sporting Goods and found  an indoor  propane heater that solved our problems, and its $85 price was a lot cheaper than a few nights in a motel! I was ecstatic! I figure that the less we have to rely on the antique operating systems of Jumbo, the better.

I was amazed an how efficiently it heated our living space. Larry will still try fixing the furnace when he gets the part on Monday, but we plan on using this as our main source of heat.

On a more positive note, Larry worked out a deal with his partners which will allow him to leave his job next Friday rather than the end of March, as he had originally planned. That means we will be able to pull out of the horse pasture and head down the road towards Santa Fe and beyond a week from Monday, if all goes well. I will be so sad to leave Rachel, Ivan and the girls, but it is time for some new adventures and time with family and friends in Washington. We are excited!