This not sleeping has got to end, and end soon. I’m so fucking tired. I’ve tried just about everything, but no matter what I do, I only sleep for about 3 hours. I get up, watch some TV, drink some coffee, take a shower, and then, and only then, I can take about an hour nap.
Anyway… Yesterday was another rainy day making a 3 day rain total of 3.8″ of rain here at the house. Around 10:00 AM UPS came and the driver said that Houghton was starting to flood again, so knowing I needed to go to the dreaded Walmart, I headed out before the weather got any worse. Before even getting to the main road, I crossed over Menge Creek, and it was over flowing it’s banks, as was the next unnamed creek. I got to the main road, US-41, and the waves were crashing onto the road with logs and such right at the edge of the road. The drive all the way to Chassell was a slow one with heavy, heavy rain. Just past Chassell, there were police with their flashers on marking an area where water was flowing over the road and a front-end loader was pushing dirt and rocks off the road. About 2 miles further, the same thing. Once in Houghton it didn’t look too bad until I saw one of the downtown road that was just repaired a week ago starting to wash away, again. I did my shopping and headed for home. US-41 was getting worse in those same two spots with MDOT at the seen. The waves seemed to have calmed down a bit where they were crashing onto the road earlier. Thankfully the heavy rain didn’t start back up as was forecast, so things shouldn’t be too bad.
One more thing… the pellet stove. I got a quote for 1 ton of hardwood pellets delivered for $235.85, that’s $4.00 per 40lb bag (50 total bags) plus delivery charge and tax. That seems pretty good to me and under the cost of what I’ve read. Something else I never thought of about using a pellet stove, they are worthless if the power goes out. The damn things need power in order to work. I found this out because later yesterday we lost power twice.
Update… I just ordered 2 tons of hard wood pellets. That’s 100 40# bags. They will be delivering it today at 2:00 PM. Pretty fast service.
According to the stove manual, one 40# bag should last 24 hours burning at the middle setting (5). Now, that’s over 3 months worth of pellets burning 24/7. I have no plans to burn that much, and definitely not at night, so I think this could last me through most the winter, we shall see though.
Added a photo looking out toward the back of the property. The gazebo is in the center of a circle of birch trees.
