Not quite so cold. South wind is miserable, but not frigid. Temperature has increased this evening. Now about 38F, but wind is 15 with gusts to 20. Makes feels like temp around 29F.
Sounds like we might get a week of not-so-terrible weather according to KELO. I should not be griping about snow because gumbo in yard has 3 inch wide cracks 20 feet long. Some good spring rains after most guy's herds are done calving would be really good.
Mitchell Daily Republic has the EARL rancher-of-sorts cartoon. Today hit a few things directly and indirectly. Earl's wife is standing waiting outside the ice-covered outhouse near a bare tree also with hanging ice. She says something like this, "When we married, he promised me a life in the romantic outdoor west." While this is an all-white cartoon, this also says a bit about those who romanticize the life and culture of the native plains people in the 1800's. We are all trying to conserve propane with the current high prices. Those prices and shortages are hitting the Native Americans hard these days, but I do wonder how they would be doing in buffalo skin teepees with temperatures and wind like we have been having.
More seriously, I talked to PR man at our local electric coop today. He said that with a 91% efficient propane furnace, propane would have to be less than $1.90 per gallon to produce heat at same price as a simple resistance electric heater. Assuming instead, an electric heat pump with ground source for ambient heat and cooling source, then propane would have to be less than 45 cents per gallon to compete. He said he has a foam-insulated workshop with heat in concrete floor. He said heating that costs less than "feeding his poodle the expensive dog food it prefers".
On this rambling detour, our state and federal governments should be putting money into home and business insulation and proper window orientation for best winter passive heat, etc. With enough sensible building and retro-fitting, we would not need fleets of ships and flights of fighter planes, bombers, etc to protect oil tanker shipping and desert oil fields.
Even if some nearly inevitable waste got into such energy saving programs, the benefits would last for generations. And, compared to waste and fraud in programs such as New Orleans flood relief and military recruitment and procurement, energy change waste could be negligible by comparison and would generate real savings and benefits for the "general welfare".
*** Stay tuned and think insulation, better windows, better window orientation, etc.--Doug Wiken
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