Opened the door this morning to the familiar cold blast of wind with bits of ice dinging off my face. It comes off the Great Lakes, tunnels through this little valley and really gives us a blowy winter. Long range plans include wind turbines on top of my silos. People around here are concerned about affording heat this winter. Fuel oil is up to $3.59 a gallon, costing thousands to heat the average house over the winter. I paid $3.25 to put gas in the F150 yesterday. I don't know how people around here get by. I hear people are giving up their furnaces and going to wood and pellet stoves like crazy. I don't have any firewood yet because I still haven't cleaned out the trailer I lived in last winter. I'm trading it to the Pig Farmer for some firewood 'cause I sure can't afford hay, sheep feed and firewood, too. This little apt. is nice and tight but still gets cold. I keep dreaming of a message from my brother saying he finally managed to sell our mother's house in NJ. That money would get me a tractor, fix the broken windows on the barn, hay feeders, a new sofa, and a down payment on the land at the tip of my hill where the big pond is. One brother is still squatting in the house - my mother's favorite baby boy who was never able to support himself, even with a college education and endless money from my parents. Thank God my kids are self-sufficient.
1 comment:
Hang in there kiddo, it's always darkest before the dawn. That money will come in at the nick of time and the hardship will be lightened. We're in an apartment also with money tight when the landlord knocked $50 off each of the four coldest months of the winter here, hooray! This was after she replaced all the heating/AC units in each apartment with new more efficient ones. All landlords aren’t bad I guess. Take care.
Ron from MA
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