This morning brings to mind the song “Baby It’s Cold Outside”. Why, you ask. Because it is COLD out side!! You just never know what the winter will be around here in advance. Some years we don’t have any at all and some years we get pretty cold. I have been known to answer the question of when do we get our winter around here, by answering; “Last year it was on a Thursday”. It is now only 28 degrees and has been for a lot of hours. The amount of time the temperature stays below the freezing mark is what is important to whether we have any damage or not. It is suppose to get up to the 60’s today and the sun is up and feels hot on my face, but baby, it is still cold outside!
The pump to my water well, the pressure tank, and a lot of the piping sits on a small cement slab outside, like everybody else’s. The infrastructure around this area is not made for sustained cold weather. I took the precaution last night to cover my well area with a couple of tarps. I figured the warmth from the ground would keep the well from freezing and about 03:00 this morning I got up and ran some water and flushed a commode to get the pump to kick on. I figured that it would be a two fold help; one to get the water moving in the pipes and the other to warm up the stuff under the tarps from the heat of the pump motor. Don’t know if it was needed or not, but at least I don’t seem to have any damage this morning. Sometimes the leaks don’t show up for awhile and I ain’t going to go out and crawl under the house this morning.
It is going to be a nice clear, sunny day and I hope you all have a great day in your area. I figure any day that I wake up is a good day.
You don't have heat tapes on those pipes in the pump house? Used them in NM and here even. Found they work well. Just wrap around what ever you don't want to freeze and plug them in. Low current draw, thermostat control built in
ReplyDeleteGlad you didn't have any freeze up's. We had cold temps here too last night,and no frozen pipes either! Our weather has changed so much,it's hard to predict the weather anymore,so different from when I was growing. Blessings Jane
ReplyDeleteBen, I don't have a shed. When it gets real cold, I cover it with tarps and if is to stay cold', I. Put a light under it.
ReplyDeleteJane glad you didn't have any broken pipes. Stay warm.
When I lived up yonder in Montana, our well house was heated by two big old heat lamps. Water stayed liquid down to 40 below. Pipes were buried four to five feet deep, no worries there.
ReplyDeleteHad some friends that homesteaded up in Alaska back in the fifties, they dug out a basement that lacked about four feet coming to the edge of the house and dug their well down there, then built the house on top of it, never had any freezing problems.
Bob, I used to live in Pennsylvania and understand how deep the frost line can be. Most homes had basements and the water pump was always in the basement.
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