In Wisconsin Mother Nature ignores the calendar and sends winter when she feels like it.

We closed in late September and life kept us hopping and away. As October progressed on we knew that we needed to get everything ready for winter. Part of that process would be getting heat to the main house.

Good thing is that there is a working furnace. The unique situation is that the heat it produces runs through a big old monster that is older than both of us combined. This is one of those old octopus furnaces that kids have nightmares about and make basements in the movies so darn scary. Seeing one for the first time in real life I could see why. The big heavy cast iron doors like giant jaws and the duct work running in multiple directions like Medusa’s hair.

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Brad was able to guess at the age of the LP furnace by the sticker of the local installer who had gone out of business some years ago. 23 years isn’t young for a furnace, but it is a youngster compared to the big beast.

The filter could use replacing, but the local hardware store didn’t have anything that would fit. So a good cleaning would have to do for now, and the right size was ordered. After cleaning a very dirty filter it fired right up.

A unique situation is that the air goes from the LP furnace into the big beast and then out to the duct work. The air has to heat up the big cast iron furnace before heating the house, not a very efficient system. Upgrading the heating system is a definite on the to-do list.

Related to the furnace is the LP tank. Brad wanted to have flexibility with the purchase of propane. So we bought a tank. The current supplier did not sell tanks, so out with the old and in with the new.