Now I’m feeling fortunate to have piped in natural gas.
I never understood the constraints on that in the northeast. I feel like most all midwest cities were likely retrofitted with natural gas at some point. Why not the NE?
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Natural gas line runs less than a mile from my house. Not available here though. L.P. is probably as good as it’s gonna get for my lifetime. It’s fairly affordable most of the time. I just had my tank filled, 180 gallons at $1.69 a gallon. One winter L.P. hit nearly $6 a gallon here. I was sure glad I had filled up before it got that high (it went back down to around $2.50 by the time I needed a fill)
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Our natural gas bill in September was $8.19 for 6 therms. I’m guessing most of it was the hot water heater.
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thats what happens when youre at the end of the world and the closest interstate ends 120 mi. south of you. many burn wood but that isn’t nearly as cheap as it used to be. we go thru $2500 a winter on average. this year it will be quite a bit more i think. having a outside tank we cant use no 2 fuel oil because it will freeze in our weather.
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good question! never even heard of it offered up here. and here is where its needed most! our electricity is insanely high also. with our electric hot water heater it runs about $140/ mo. comes thru canada.
NG gas lines here are run to small mountain towns when there are enough houses/businesses close enough together to make it economically viable. The ski resorts/towns generally get it, as well as some towns with populations of >1000 or so. Smaller towns or isolated homes forget it, you can get a propane tank.
We have propane, but for the most part rely on sun and wood heat during the winter. Lately been burning just under 2 full cords a winter. However it is really sunny here, and I suspect it would be double that if we were in a cloudy climate. Propane is only used for house heat when we are away, or if it really really cold and we don’t get up to stoke the fire at night.
From my comparison some years back, NG is the cheapest, with propane at about 2x of what NG costs, and electric at 2x of propane.
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propane up here is even more expensive than heating oil. $30 just to fill a grill tank.
Wow. That is a lot for a 5gal BBQ tank of propane. I own my own tanks, so I just have the propane delivery guy fill the BBQ tanks when he does the house tanks. Usually < $10 per tank, depending upon the price of propane at the time.
No frost yet, cutting all of the basil and picking herbs a d green tomatoes tomorrow. That should do it gor the season!!! I love drying my herbs! 33 by Saturday night!
They’re calling for 34 tonight and tomorrow night. I have peppers still on the plants, decided I would take a chance the next couple nights that we won’t get a freeze.
I have two sensors out, one is under our deck up here on the hill, it’s at 44, the other is about 100 yards away down the hill by tne barn, and it’s reading 40. This is at about 11:30, so we have a ways to go.
It’s supposed to get to 32 Sun night, so I suppose I’ll have to pick them that afternoon.
A question, I have blackberries and raspberries that aren’t ripe yet. How would 32 affect the canes and berries? Would they ripen normally after that?
In my experience, 1980’s slightly inland from Eureka CA this time of year:
- The seeds in the berries will enlarge as sustained (4+ hrs) temps drop below 50°F.
- The cane ends will make desperate attempts to root, sending out 1/2" to 1" root feelers in the last 2-3 inches. If you want to propagate them … Take a spade-ended shovel and push it into the ground below, moving it side-to-side a little bit, then insert the cane end as far as you can and close the gap with your foot. Alternately insert them into a 1/2 gallon pot of soil that will receive moisture from time-to-time. In the spring when sprouts start coming out of the soil, cut the original cane and you are now a proud owner of a new clone.
Well much of the data is in. 2018 has seen some record high temperatures in our area.
May and September where the hottest months on record (since 1873).
February was the third hottest month on record.
August was the fifth warmest month on record and June was the tenth warmest month on record. So for 2018 five months hit records for heat.
Def felt like it too. Glad we are through it. 
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First warm day in a couple weeks (mid 60s). The asian beetles are unreal. I had seen only a couple all fall until today. I have never seen them this thick…glad I sprayed the house a few weeks ago
To me, the rising low temperatures are more frightful than the highs.
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I’ve seen that in data from here