09:01 – It was 50F (10C) when I took Colin out at 0700 this morning, gray and drizzling again. The next few days are to be like this, which is fine with us. Barbara is off to the gym this morning, and will be working on kit stuff this afternoon.
When I took Colin out after his breakfast, I checked the gauge on our propane tank for the first time. It was showing right at 60%, which indicates about 195 gallons still in the tank. Given that they originally filled the 325-gallon tank with 200 gallons of propane (61.5%), that means we’ve used only about 5 gallons of propane since mid-December, or about 1.25 gallons/month. If that rate is accurate, which I doubt, a full tank would last us about 208 months or 17 years.
Rebecca Ann Parris has an interesting and useful article up on Pat Henry’s site: Prepper Must-Haves: Vices
Overall, Pat’s site gets my vote as the most useful prepping site out there. In particular, Ms. Parris’s articles are always worth reading. Unlike many authors, she doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. In fact, I may start re-posting her articles here.
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10:33 – The propane guy just left. We now have a full tank. He said he doesn’t trust the gauges on the tank. He said the tank has a dip tube that extends down to the maximum fill level, so he just pumps propane until liquid propane starts squirting out the dip tube vent. That way, he’s sure it’s full. Sometimes, a tank fills up while the gauge still indicates 70% or less, and sometimes when it indicates 95%.
The tanker pumps about 1.5 gallons of propane per second, so it doesn’t take long to fill even a large tank. We expected our tank to take the original 60 gallon underfill plus however much we’d used since mid-December. The total was 62.6 gallons, so either we’re using hardly any propane or they originally actually filled the tank to more than 200 gallons. The total bill was $160.94, or about $2.57/gallon.