Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Warnings; Conservation and a Lil’ Tip…

Edited to say:

Just so you know~ I typed this in Live Writer and pasted my local weather into the post... so the first paragraph had a mind of it's own and WENT ROGUE on me! Hopefully all the original words have been put back together and you can make sense of it! 





Yesterday we awoke to a Thick heavy layer of smoke linger all over…

Throughout the Labor Day weekend we heard lots of sirens, saw lots of Volun-

teers,Fire trucks, and water trucks ripping up and down our little country FM road. We had several little fires close by—nothing so close that we had to leave our home. But, we’ve come close to it some years back and I know how scary it can be.

This was the weather report for our area



Weather Warning
...DENSE SMOKE ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM CDT THIS AFTERNOON...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN FORT WORTH HAS ISSUED A DENSE
SMOKE ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM CDT THIS
AFTERNOON.

* EVENT...LARGE FIRES BURNING ACROSS EAST TEXAS HAVE RESULTED IN A
THICK SMOKE PLUME WHICH IS MOVING WESTWARD INTO NORTH TEXAS.
WINDS ARE OUT OF THE EAST-NORTHEAST WHICH IS HELPING TO BLOW
THIS PLUME IN THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF TYLER...ATHENS...AND
CORSICANA. GIVEN THE LIGHT WINDS...THIS SMOKE PLUME IS NOT
LIKELY TO DISPERSE QUICKLY.

* TIMING...NOW THROUGH MID AFTERNOON.

* IMPACT...VISIBILITIES WILL BE REDUCED TO 1/4 MILE IN MANY
LOCATIONS IN THE DIRECT PATH OF THIS SMOKE PLUME. IN
ADDITION...AIR QUALITY WILL BE DEGRADED ACROSS THIS REGION.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A DENSE SMOKE ADVISORY MEANS WIDESPREAD FIRES WILL CREATE SMOKE...
LIMITING VISIBILITIES. IF DRIVING... SLOW DOWN...USE YOUR
HEADLIGHTS...AND LEAVE PLENTY OF DISTANCE AHEAD OF YOU IN CASE A
SUDDEN STOP IS NEEDED.

Thankfully, the last 5 days or so the Temperature has been a considerable bit cooler. The winds, though they make for a rough time in this TINDER box we live in, have been pleasant and cool; not like the HOT blasts we had in July and August.

Which brings me to the Conservation part of this post

We use propane to cook, heat water, and heat parts of the house when we’re not using wood.  Our Hot water tank is in a closet in the bathroom and it stays hot there during the summer months—we do not cool our bathroom or Utility room (we’re trying to save energy, remember?). So to save even more energy or propane—we turn our WATER HEATER down to VACATION during the summer months.

 (source)

I guess it saves us quite a bit of usage where our propane bill is concerned; by not having to run as often.  During this summer—I noticed our hot water was EXTREMELY HOT. It’s no wonder I guess with 110° or higher temps and nothing to cool it down back there.  This morning I’ve noticed due to the weather change with  the temps being cooler, I barely had water hot enough to wash dishes .   I guess it’s working AND! we still have propane in our tank and are not empty like we used to be years ago this time of year.

So if you’re trying to conserve energy and lower heating bills—you might try adjusting your thermostat on your water heater …that’s if you’re like me and don’t have the * new and improved HOT WATER ON DEMAND. (For the winter months you might experiment with it and see what is the lowest setting you can stand…I WOULDN’T go so low as VACATION, though, especially if you live up north)





Note to self: In the next week or so if the weather trend is to continue cooling—turn up the thermostat on the water heater.  =D

And lastly a tip:

I’ve been making/crocheting dish cloths and dish-mops for doing the dishes. Sometimes there is junk that just won’t scrub off.  If you have a plastic butter tub lid—plastic scraper 003



you can cut it with scissors to make it rounded with a little corner on one side for getting in the tight spaces.  Use it to scrape off the junk!

plastic scraper 001

Join in here

That’s it for today… make it good one!

God Bless you and Thanks for reading.

7 comments:

camp and cottage living said...

Thanks for the tips!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

We keep ours turned down all year long. The kids tend to take really hot showers, and don't listen to us, so we just keep it turned down, and then pound on the door to keep the showers short - ha ha ha! They don't realize that electric we use, just to run our water pump.

The Boston Lady said...

Great tips and thanks for sharing what it is like to live in the area of those awful fires! May you get rain and relief soon! Ann

The Path Traveled said...

Great blog and a really good post. Loved the tip.

Loraine said...

When are we going to get some rain!?!?! My Dad was working in Kingwood yesterday and a wild fire broke out behind the houses he was working at. It took all the fences and was working its way through the yards up to the houses. Most of the people weren't home during the day so they were lucky that my dad there to call for help and save some pets and propery with the water hose before fire deptartment showed up. It's crazy and we so need any amount of rain we can get. Stay safe and I'm diggin these cool mornings we are now getting.

Anonymous said...

Love the plastic scraper tip. Hope you guys get the rain you need!

kateri @ http://dandelionhaven.blogspot.com/

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Yes, cooler temps are nice! Hope the fires get under control.

Great tip on the plastic scraper!