Drummer leaving on work trip

My band's drummer informed us he is leaving the province for about 4 months due to work.

Should we attempt to get a temp drummer for these 4 months? We're a baby original band (no records, a few shows) and things had finally been looking really up due to some lineup changes.

How long should be expect it too take a drummer to learn our songs? We're still constantly working on them, but we have a good base for them. I know it'll depend on the drummer's skill, but I'm curious as to whether you think we'd be better off just practising drummerless, or trying to gel with a new drummer and making use of the summer season.

 

Thanks for the words so far guys.

A few more things i should mention:
1. we practise at the drummer's house while he is gone I believe 2 teens are going to be living there, so he's cool with us still practising at his home.
2. our music is kinda coldplay-ish, we're not very drum driven ( i think ) for the most part, more keys and guitar
3. We haven't done a gig for over half a year due to our lead singer quitting, and the recent switch of our guitarist to lead vox and the very recent addition of another guitarist (we're a 5 piece..2 guitars,keys,bass,drums) We have a gig July 5 and 7, our drummer delayed his departure so that we can fit in these gigs with our 'new' band. Other than that, no gigs planned. Of course, this summer was supposed (we were hoping) to be the time we really get things happening...ie do all the shows we can find and record ( a demo or ep) in maybe october...so it's kinda annoying but drummer has a right to his own life too i understand. he is a big part of the band, and i know he is planning on coming back cuz he loves this band. They say 4 months, that's it, not staying longer. But...i know how that sometimes works...ppl move somewhere, love it, stay a little longer, a little longer...forever..so I think it'd be wise to at least be prepared in case the 4 months turns into a year.

Our new guitarist still has a lot to learn, and he also has a lot to offer, being more experienced than the rest of us, so I know we could use some more time to gel more musically, but 4 months of doodling seems like a long time, although we could definitly use more songs, right now we're at about 10 originals.

Hopefully tomorrow night at practise one of us can ask him how HE feels about us looking into getting a temp, and I'll get back to you guys about his response.

p.s. another cause of friction/hesitation may be the fact that our former singer was drummer's brother...me and our keyboardist were very instrumental in having him kicked out of the band (for good reasons) we let him back in then due to his brother and father sticking up for him, but nothing really changed, and a couple months later he quit and got engaged. I think our drummer knows we like him, but history may concern him that he's getting the axe too.

 

This is supposed to be a one time thing. If it happens again after he gets back i think we'll get concerned

And about the house, it's his. He's married (the only not single guy in the band) And about the people moving in, I'm not worried. They are people we know and can trust

 

2lim, No spare kit lying around. Also, we'd want somebody local that we could regularily rehearse with. Thanks for the offer tho.

 

We've got about 10 songs right now, not quite 35!

 

I finally got the nerve to ask our drummer how he'd feel about this idea tonight at band, and he was cool with it. I didn't expect a 'sure' with no hesitation! I guess we'll look into the drummer pool around us, and see what turns up, and if anything works out.