Progress!

At long last, after many fits and many starts, the workshop/scriptorium furnace is complete and ready to be piped up for propane.

This propane furnace, slightly overspeced (100,000 BTUs to heat a space of maybe 400 sq. feet) was one of those really expensive freebies you encounter from time to time. The furnace, we got free. The custom ducting and plumbing, the cutting and trying to get it to fit in its place, the pricey special tools I'll never use again, the pain and anguish of trying to figure the whole thing out, the tumult, the trials, the travail... Oh, what the hell. The damned thing's done. Now I move on to the next step, tearing out some perfectly good wallboard so that I can plumb for the free water heater that sits next to the expensive free heater. (The propane guy said to me, "Uh...Why'd you sheetrock the walls if you were going to put in plumbing?" Because, okay? Just because.)

Also, I heard from the lady with the puppies this morning. We're down to two candidates, both from the Akita dad. Yes, I'm going with a male so folks! Please stop emailing me about how wrong I am, okay? Of course I'm wrong! It's a momentous decision and I always get those wrong! D'ye think I became a desert hermit because my previous life was so placid and wonderfully well-ordered? Geez, give me a...

*ahem* Excuse me. I'm okay now. Yeah...no, really, I'm all right. Put down the net.

Heh - seriously, I don't think I've ever gotten so many comments on one post, both here, in email and in person, unanimously telling me how wrong I was to specify a male dog. The hubris I'm showing in ignoring all these messages will almost certainly carry a heavy price. But anyway, as I said we're down to two candidates, either a black one or a (GORGEOUS!) brown-and-black one. I wrote back that my preference was based on temperament; if one is markedly calmer, I want that one.

One more month, and we'll hear the pitter-patter of little paws in the gulch!