God will take care of you.....

Firstly, as usual, i apologize for the length between updates, especially given my recent quasi-employed status.

God has been taking care of us in miraculous ways. Recently, we were told that before they would deliver more fuel to our tank, by which we head the house, we had to finally fix the overflow whistle. We've lacked one of these since we first started utilizing a furnace again, two years ago or so. It's an expensive item to fix (over two hundred dollars) and the oil company has been willing to deliver only a hundred or one hundred fifty gallons at a time (we have two tanks which together equal five hundred gallons), so it wasn't really a problem. Of course, as the fuel meter's broke as well, it's been a guessing game between skirting shy of overfilling the tank (lacking the overflow whistle) and running out.

This year had been a good year- i don't know as we'd ever actually run out once. In the depths of a cold, cold winter 100 gallons of fuel has historically been dependable for lasting about 2 weeks in our large, drafty old home. (Weatherization? What's that?) As it's been a mild winter this year (dubbed by at least one person the winter that wasn't), we were able to push things a little longer.

Add to that the fact that we were able to go on a budget plan this year, with a cap attached and heating life was good.

So a few weeks ago, i went to order more fuel (it had been maybe three or four weeks since last delivery) and was informed that they could deliver one more time but would not deliver again without the whistle. Regulations are occasionally cracked down upon, you know.

So we schedule the repair. The repairman arrives, and he does not fix the problem. The reason? The tanks, which were not replaced when the furnace was and have been there at least as long as i remember, are "seeping". Which is to say that apparently they are not actually dripping fuel into the basement, but they are not safe to continue using, and another delivery, which pumps fuel in at a rate of force which surprised me, would not be advisable. The verdict? New tank needed.

Now here's where the miraculous blessings parts come in. Firstly, had we had one more delivery, apparently it could have been bad, like 100 gallons of fuel oil in our basement bad. So maybe i never thought i would say this, but praise God for government regulations!

Then, there's the fact that the tanks were still solid enough to allow us to run through the fuel already in them. So heat.

Finally, the fuel has not yet run out. This is pivotal as we are currently not using the wood stove (a bird flew out of it last year, and until we figure out how the bird went in and out of it that isn't really a safe bet for winter heat) and without the furnace are not truly sure how we could stay sufficiently warm. We can't use the furnace once the fuel is used, however, until we install the new tank. It's uncertain how long that may take.

It's almost the end of winter though, and it's a mild winter. So if the existing fuel can just last until the warmer weather, we won't have to sweat the heat while it's repaired. Also, perhaps we could have some breathing room on the repair, and the cost thereof.

Still, i would have expected the fuel to be run through days, if not weeks, ago. It's gotten to the point where it's a "thank You, praise You God!" experience every time we hear the furnace kick on. A few years ago, before we put in the new furnace, i wrote a post on my old blog about "manna wood". That was when the wood stove was our only source of heat, and for some reason we went some days without a wood delivery. For nights in a row, i could be found out in the snow scrounging for wood in the pile by the house. Each night i unearthed, it seemed, enough to get us through the night. Like the manna of old, God supplied our needs.

i have a similar feeling now, about the fuel oil. God is giving us enough fuel to keep us warm.

thank You praise You God!!