Kitchen updates, blue cold

When I got home last night Mama was just getting things set up for her to go to the ladies meeting at church later that evening. She did the desserts for the meeting and the mobile home smelled accordingly. Since we had only a short time to get anything done together I went to the apartment and got the final anchor (which I had to buy at Lowes because the ones they sent in the mounting kit were junk) in the mounting bracket for the microwave and Mama and I hung it in the kitchen of the apartment.

It looks very good suspended over the cooktop. I had to rig the orifices on the gas cooktop because it had been set up for natural gas and we are using propane. The manufacturer no longer provides parts for that model cooktop. The orifice for natural gas is much larger than the one for propane – for reasons mostly due to delivery pressure. So I had to figure out a way to make the orifice smaller.

I found the answer in Mama’s sewing kit. I took three straight pins and stuffed them into each orifice to shrink the opening. It took three in each one because two did not wedge together enough to hold in place. Now it works perfectly. So we have the cooktop and microwave in place. We still need a double oven and a dishwasher, but we are getting closer.

I returned to the garden with the tiller last night and got a little more ground tilled up before dark. I still have another hour or two to cover the garden and the area we are going to set up as an orchard but that will have to wait until sometime next week. Last night is the last night I have off this week. With play practice, the RU meeting and the Sunday School party, I will have no evening time on the farm for the rest of the week.

Mama is worried about getting to and from the church because starting tomorrow evening we are under a winter storm advisory. The warning extends through Sunday morning. The temperatures are predicted to be below 20®F with freezing rain and probable ice accumulation. We will have to wait and see how it ends up but Mama is already making plans to hunker down. She really hates this kind of weather.

According to the weather predictions for the month this will be the only severe cold snap we will have in the entire month of December (Friday night the predicted low temperature is 8®F.)  but that too will have to play itself out before we know for sure. Looking ahead I see next Monday night with a predicted low of 4®F.

Oh well, it is winter. The good thing about the weather here is that if you can endure a short snap of cold you can be pretty sure the temperatures will bounce back into the more mild ranges within a few days. I do like to look ahead because there are different things I have to do to get ready for the really cold nights.

Nothing like we had to do in West Virginia, but still it helps to get fair warning.