My third overnight stay in the mini-cabin took place in early January of 2010 after we had had a few significant snowfalls. The dirt road leading back to the cabin had a good amount of snow on it and getting in and out was difficult but not impossible. I added a couple of new features to the cabin, one successfully and one not so much.

One of the issued I'd been struggling with was lighting the interior of the cabin at night. I have a propane lantern that puts out decent light but it is very noisy and propane canisters are expensive. I purchased a Rayovac LED lantern which reviews said was very bright. The reviews lied. It works well as a "nightlight" to keep from wandering around and bumping into things but hardly makes the cabin seem "lighted." So I purchased another lantern, this time a fluorescent lantern which takes 8 D batteries. It puts out marginally more light than the LED lantern but not nearly as much as I desired. Finally, I installed a standard light socket and tried a 60W fluorescent bulb running off the inverter/battery. The worked perfectly and easily lights up the whole cabin.

Secondly, I installed a new propane heater from Pro Com. The problem with the Big Buddy heater I had been using was that it makes the cabin too hot, even on the lowest setting and on the coldest nights. I wanted a heater with a thermostat so I bought a 10K BTU blue flame heater with a thermostat. After installing the heater and hooking up the propane tank, I got the pilot lit and turned the thermostat to the "1" setting. The main burner kicked in and stayed lit for about five seconds followed by a "click" and the burner and pilot shutting off. Repeated attempts produced the same results. At this point I don't know if the problem is the oxygen sensor shutting down the heater due to the altitude (~6500 ft.) or a problem with the propane tank (they recommend using a 100lb. tank rather than a 20lb. tank). I'll have to do some research to determine the issue.

Here are some pictures I took on this trip. In the last picture you can see a deer running across the property.