Uncle John’s Van

10/02/2026

10/02/2026

10/02/2026

That empty feeling in your tank this summer had nothing to do with how much you grilled.

A standard 20 pound cylinder is built to hold 20 pounds of propane, right around 4.7 gallons, yet the tanks waiting in those exchange cages outside the grocery store carry only 15 pounds. The steel never lost a single ounce. Back in 2008 the two biggest exchange companies cut the fill from 17 pounds to 15 and held the price steady, and by March 2014 the Federal Trade Commission had filed an administrative complaint against Ferrellgas, the operator of Blue Rhino, and against AmeriGas, claiming the pair had coordinated that reduction instead of competing over it. Both later settled without admitting wrongdoing. Nothing has changed since: the cages still dispense 15 pounds while the label on the front still reads 20 pound tank.

Break it down by the pound and the picture turns sour quickly. Pay $25 to $30 for 15 pounds at the cage and you are spending roughly $1.80 a pound, but a refill at a hardware store, RV dealer, or U-Haul yard typically costs $3.50 to $4.50 a gallon, so a full 20 pound fill lands near $20 and cuts your true cost to about a dollar a pound. Since propane weighs about 4.2 pounds per gallon, those 5 missing pounds add up to a little more than a gallon, or nearly two hours of cooking on a mid size burner. Identical tank, identical fuel, except a refill lets you keep every pound your money bought.

You can settle this yourself in half a minute with any cylinder. Find the letters TW and a number on the collar, usually 17 to 18 pounds on a steel 20 pounder, which tells you the empty weight. Put the tank on a bathroom scale, subtract that TW number, and the remainder is the propane you are actually bringing home. Try it before your next swap and the shortfall will stare back at you from the scale long before you ever fire up a burner.

The cage does still win at one thing. A refill station legally cannot fill a cylinder more than 12 years past the manufacture date stamped on its collar, whereas an exchange will accept your expired tank and requalify it in house. Use that once for an old cylinder, then refill the fresh tank they give you and you can leave exchange pricing behind for good. [1I2J5]

10/01/2026

Elk used to live in Kentucky. By the middle of the 1800s they'd been hunted out, and for about 150 years there wasn't one in the state.

Eastern Kentucky had something new to offer them, though. Strip mining had flattened whole mountaintops, and when the coal companies reclaimed the land they planted grass. Mile after mile of open grassland, right in the middle of Appalachia.

Between 1997 and 2002 crews out West trapped 1,541 elk and trucked them to Kentucky. The animals came from six states, from Oregon all the way to North Dakota, and every one was tested for disease first. Kentucky let them go across 16 counties of old mine country.

The elk took to it right away.

Today the herd runs around 13,000, the biggest east of the Rocky Mountains. Kentucky has sent some of its own elk on to restart herds in Virginia, Missouri and Wisconsin.

On fall evenings the bulls bugle from the tops of the old mines.

09/26/2026

Before everybody carried a phone and half the cars had all-wheel drive, a lot of people in snow country kept a coffee can in the trunk all winter, and at least one state police force still hands out the list.

The Illinois State Police version fits in a two- or three-pound can. A fat candle and book matches, to melt snow for something warm to drink. Packets of soup, cocoa, tea and bouillon. Peanuts and fruit candy. Cotton socks and glove liners. A penlight. A space blanket or a couple of plastic leaf bags. A pocket knife. Strips of bright cloth to tie on the car so someone can find you. Twine and safety pins to hang the can over the candle.

It rides back there all winter doing nothing, right up until the one night it matters.

Pack it now, while it's still fall and you're thinking about it.