Winter hit like a falling icicle the last two nights. It was cold. I am guessing about ten degrees F below freezing or about 20-25 F/-7C. The Monday forecast suggested -2 but that was without a cold outflow from Bute and we had that. I kept the stove burning all night and the house was 60F/I5C when we woke up which is pretty good but, damn it, we were surprised to find some water system parts underneath the house had frozen.
I have a couple of cisterns about 125 feet from the house. The line from them is one-inch pvc wrapped in heat tape and insulated with thick foam wrap and weatherproof tape. The water-line also sits under an inch or two of ground debris and it all sits in a shallow gully. It isn’t warm and toasty in there but it is out of the wind and, with the heat tape, should withstand the cold we normally get. Last night was colder. It was not likely the line but still, something froze. Our water system wasn’t workin’….
I made a small tent today from a plastic sheet and covered up the pumps (all wrapped in insulation and tape, too) valves, pressure tank and such. And then I will plug’n play an electric heater in it. My little plastic room with heater should raise the temperature at that point in the system (the expensive section) and that might help the tapes thaw the line during the day time. I am glad it is sunny – that helps – but it is still cold. The tent idea may not be enough magic. We’ll see.
It worked! Just came in and took my morning shower at 1:00 pm. So, that’s good but, but, but…Thursday is the deepest temperature drop and I have to figure out a way to get us through that night. I may put the little space heater on a timer so it kicks on now and then….
…..and now, the very next (Tuesday night) day, it does not work! The temperature dropped a few more degrees and we are, once again, frozen up….and the little heater is going full tilt. We’ll see. Oooooh, the adventure!
Speaking of cold, I have a weird theory about the GOPs and their ‘plan’ regarding Trump. It is positively Machiavellian. Stone-cold. Now I admit from the get-go that this theory is somewhat along the lines of Kev’s conspiracy theories but, since I made this one up, I am promoting it, you know…like D-Anon (Dave anon). Here it is: The senior scum in the GOP know they have to jettison Trump – the question is how? If they kick him out, they lose millions of tatted up, camo-wearing Bubbas so that is an unattractive option…..their challenge? How to get rid of Trump while looking like they are supporting him?
Lindsay Graham says, “I have a plan. We have a pair of idiot-lawyers whose egos are so huge and brains so small that they will screw up very, very badly. We can get them on Trump’s defense team right now especially since the saner ones walked off the job yesterday. The fools will only have a week to prepare. These guys are the Laurel and Hardy of Southern law. Totally incompetent. So we go in apparently supporting Trump but, before our very eyes the House prosecutors make such a compelling case and the Trump goofs can’t do a thing. We have to vote for impeachment. The defense just kept dropping the ball. Then, voila, Trump is barred from running! We get to blame the defense team because the trial plays out in front of the world! They’ll be so bad even Bubba would vote to impeach!”
Moscow Mitch says, “Da! Is goudt plan, no, Ivan? Get Vlad on the phone, comrade. Make it so, number one!”
Our Off the Grid Home 
Brilliant! Speaking of cold, That’s what the tRump saga leaves me: Stone Cold!
Has anyone totaled up the cost of this fiasco? Not just the cost of the lawyers, and their aides, and their aides, but the Judges and all the ancillary costs! Not to mention the lack of attention to all the other myriad problems, such as the pandemic, and Global Warming. although that seems like a misnomer these days.
I have more serious concerns, as like you, I am on the watch for frozen utilities. I have 3 ponds full of 5 pound trout, which will succumb to oxygen deprivation if I don’t pump air into their habitat during the winter. Compressed air condenses and the condensate tends to freeze up in sub zero temperatures, but with luck, and vigilance, we WILL overcome. Or is that SHALL?
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I’m thinking even if Trump isnt impeached….there’s 4 years of lawsuits and bad press before the next election.
Trump may start a 3rd party but it will go down in flames battling the Republicans for the conservative vote a la Ross Perot.
I’m thinking Biden will step aside and if she is as smart as I think she is…….
Kamala for the next prez?
Frozen pipes….yuck.
Can you leave a tap trickling for water flow so it doesnt freeze the lines?
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I figure Kamala for prez BEFORE the next election…if not, she will definitely be the most active VP in history over the next four years. She’s like a second string QB watching an old guy from the sidelines. But she is standing not sitting. And you know how much the presidency AGES people. If Biden has any brains, he will openly, publicly and purposefully delegate sections of government to her from the get-go.
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Biden will run for a second term. Kamala will be breaking “glass ceilings”! Trump’s supporters are using violence to inspire more thralls to carry the trump banner. Some people are attracted to nihilism like the violence of the 1930’s (think Germany) when thugs desecrated the symbols of democracy. Some Trump supporters defiled the walls of the Capital. The celebration of violence in political discourse gives little reason for glee as some of the insurrections showed their exploits on social media streaming videos of what they did that day at the Capital. Urges toward incivility must be resisted.
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Slight skiff of snow with cold outflow winds. Wind chill is —17 degrees Celsius at Hope. How are you faring Bro?
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Well, we are running the genset a lot! And the water system is down (but not broken) and, if I feed the stove around 2:00-2:30, we keep the house warm enough. But last night I woke up at 1:00., fed the stove and when we got up at 8:00, the fire had been out an hour and the cold had already crept in somewhat. In other words, “piece o’ cake’.
I confess that logging operations have been suspended temporarily.
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Well it sounds under control with manageable inconvenience. Our toilet decided to over flow and isn’t it Murphy’s Law that you can’t find the ‘’snake” when you need it. Vanished inexplicably to who knows where. Good to hear that you are copping! Where do snakes go if only used every decade or so?
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