The Damn Weather

For most of July and August, the weather in Sackville was unbearably hot and humid. Ever since the hurricane/tropical storm swept through, it has been bloody freezing. Somehow we completely skipped over Fall and went straight from summer to winter. Last night there was a frost warning. For the past several days, I have had to walk Nova with gloves and a toque on. How is this possible in September? It also doesn't help that our heating systems are not as automatic as the electric and natural gas heating I have been used to all my life. I actually don't even know what kind of heat the main heater is at my parents' house, all I know is that it is controlled by lever on a thermostat and is easy.

Here in our old house in our small town in rural canada, we have two options, neither of which seem particularly easy to me.

One is an old (1959) furnace.

Powered by oil, which is stored in this tank.

The other is an old (god knows how old) wood stove.

Powered by, well, wood.

Both of these sources of heat require maintenance before using them for the first time after not being used all summer. In addition to the basic maintenance, our chimney, which houses the output for both the furnace and the wood stove, is in shambles. So that needs to be repaired and hopefully it will be done soon since it also allows water to leak into the basement when it rains.

Today, since D has a visitor in town to assist him (apparently I am not good enough), he is cleaning out the chimney for the wood stove.

Which is apparently quite dirty. At last check, there was this much soot that had been banged out of the pipe.

 I am also happy to report that when I went outside to take pictures, I realized that it is actually kind of warming up today. It is about 19 degrees Celsius (66 Fahrenheit). I guess we might get a couple of decent days before winter fully sets in. Also, this weekend is the Sackville Fall Fair, and since today is the perfect day to be outside, I think that is where we are heading.