What's everybody doing today?

[backlash]

My wife has a Dr. appointment with her arthritis doc.
He has done nothing to help her. He just keeps giving her different meds hoping they work. They don't.
Going to Costco while we are in the big town.
I want to get back home before the snow and ice gets here.
We are supposed to have a week or so of snow, ice, and cold. Not looking forward to that.

Plastic pipes will burst.
Just about every year I have to repair the PVC pipe for my pasture irrigation.
Even after I blow out the lines it will freeze and bust.

 

[Hooch]

And more questions, are the lines all inside the house from the tank to the taps, and is the cold line tee close to the hot water tank.

The lines are just under the flooring from the tank. The tank has it's own little closet, accessed from outside..but the line pop up through the floor.
Its seems a crappy way to put the lines but the half of the tin can that has all the water lines is sunk into the ground.
I guess that was their solution to insulating the pipes. I have managed to get away with no issues for almost 9 years but..this is a old singlewide. It was never meant to be permanent living. It just needs to last maybe 5 more years.
I dont know if the pipes are plastic or metal..I'll look..

 

[Tirediron]

if you can catch the frozen spot quick enough it should thaw fairly easily , the longer the water sit still the bigger the ice block gets, hopefully the pipes are pex or something a bit flexable

 

[Tirediron]

the cold line between the shower and the log wall froze off here, but there was some stuff to keep the kittens out from behind the shower, didnt want a stuck kitten

 

[Hooch]

They are metal

 

[Tirediron]

metal lines don't always burst, sometimes there is enough stretch that they are ok Can you put some kind of heat source near the pipes and see if it will thaw enough to get a trickle of water through

 

[Peanut]

Only scheduled one outside chore for today, left time for several disasters which never occurred, thankfully.

I took the chickens their fresh tank of warm water a while ago. Should be able to drink their fill before it freezes. Brought back the tank that was already frozen and put it in my shower to thaw. I’ll have it ready by morning… rinse, repeat.

My cousin came over and checked the creeks down in the bottoms. They are flowing so the cows have plenty to drink.

My next task is cooking supper. It’s 2:30, I have time for a nap!

 

[Tirediron]

Only scheduled one outside chore for today, left time for several disasters which never occurred, thankfully.

I took the chickens their fresh tank of warm water a while ago. Should be able to drink their fill before it freezes. Brought the tank back that was frozen and put it in my shower to thaw. I’ll have it ready by morning… rinse, repeat.

My cousin came over and checked the creeks down in the bottoms. They are flowing so the cows have plenty to drink.

My next task is cooking supper. It’s 2:30, I have time for a nap!

you guys n gals who live where it rarely gets very cold have it pretty rough when it does happen, stuff just isn't set up for the cold. where as here where we expect it to get cold, water lines are buried 8 feet deep

 

[Bacpacker]

Use a hair dryer on where you can get to the pipes. Leave a faucet open somewhere nearest the pipes. Since you caught it quick you may get it thawed pretty quick. If you get it flowing, leave a drip going to keep it from freezing back.

 

[kenv1950]

snow blowing and its 15degrees out ,

 

[Hooch]

So the hot n cold water lines from the heater are separate.
The heater is fine..the cold water line is fine..the hot water line is either frozen or busted.
I had the local plumber come out , thankfully he had time. He has been wildly busy lately.
The best solution for now since I have to get to work is to try n thaw that line out. There is no easy access to that line at the moment. I have a hearer on the wall directly in front of that line a few feet away but I have to scoot to work.
He shut off the valve to the hot water line so in case it is broken it d ok...i sent cause damage.
When it heats up in a few days, I'll turn the valve back on n hopefully it's not broken.
If its broken..that will be interesting to fix.

 

[Bacpacker]

So the hot n cold water lines from the heater are separate.
The heater is fine..the cold water line is fine..the hot water line is either frozen or busted.
I had the local plumber come out , thankfully he had time. He has been wildly busy lately.
The best solution for now since I have to get to work is to try n thaw that line out. There is no easy access to that line at the moment. I have a hearer on the wall directly in front of that line a few feet away but I have to scoot to work.
He shut off the valve to the hot water line so in case it is broken it d ok...i sent cause damage.
When it heats up in a few days, I'll turn the valve back on n hopefully it's not broken.
If its broken..that will be interesting to fix.

Glad you were able to get it checked out at least

 

[Peanut]

So the hot n cold water lines from the heater are separate.
The heater is fine..the cold water line is fine..the hot water line is either frozen or busted.
I had the local plumber come out , thankfully he had time. He has been wildly busy lately.
The best solution for now since I have to get to work is to try n thaw that line out. There is no easy access to that line at the moment. I have a hearer on the wall directly in front of that line a few feet away but I have to scoot to work.
He shut off the valve to the hot water line so in case it is broken it d ok...i sent cause damage.
When it heats up in a few days, I'll turn the valve back on n hopefully it's not broken.
If its broken..that will be interesting to fix.

Do you have a red heat lamp used for baby chicks? Mine have a wire guard over the bulb. You'd be surprised how well one will thaw pipes, even keep them from freezing.

 

[Plainflatlander]

Plowed my driveways I service. Our meeting of the historical committee was cancelled due to the flash freeze. It will be a glacier come morning.

 

[Plainflatlander]

Do you have a red heat lamp used for baby chicks? Mine have a wire guard over the bulb. You'd be surprised how well one will thaw pipes, even keep them from freezing.

View attachment 122955

Friend of mine is a plumber, slowly heating the pipe is the best way to avoid bursting.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Any ideas why I have water pressure, cold water but no hot water?
Could the pilot light have gone out? I would think itd just produce cold water if that happened...??

We had a hot water pipe freeze just before the kitchen sink one year, the cold water pipe was further away from the exterior of the house but the hot water pipe froze enough to stop the flow of water... That was really confusing, having cold water but no hot water. I am assuming that you are saying that there is no flow when the hot water is turned on, that's what we saw....

 

[UrbanHunter]

Worked 06:00 till 15:00 today, then I shoveled snow for a couple of hours, got it all cleared but now I'm a little pooped.

 

[Peanut]

Friend of mine is a plumber, slowly heating the pipe is the best way to avoid bursting.

Here on the farm we drank from the same spring for generations. Had tiles set in gravel so about 100g of water was available. Had a good pump and pressure tank.

220vac was supplied to the pump house. In winter we’d hang 2, 100watt, bulbs in series in the pump house, 8ftx6ft and 7ft tall. We’d hang them low between the pump and tank, there was exposed piping there also.

We never had water freeze even during bad winters. Just the heat generated from a couple 100watt bulbs was enough to keep everything thawed. There were many times when the temp was down below 20degrees, a day, 2, even 3 or 4. No frozen pipes.

 

[backlash]

I leave the kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors under the sinks open when it get really cold.
The part of the house where those are is against the outside block walls from 1950 when the house was built so there isn't much insulation there.

Update:
Went to Costco and the parking lot was full. I knew what it would be like inside so I drove on by.
Looks like everyone is preparing for the ice and snow due to start tonight.
We were just making our normal monthly trip.

My wife tested positive for TB. It's not active and could be a false positive. She has no symptoms.
She will have to see an infection specialist. Doc said if they don't call her within a couple of weeks to call them.
We have a huge population of illegal Mexican and South American invaders so I'm not surprised.

 

[Bluedanube]

Back to work today. I’m glad it just meant cranking up the pellet stove and turning on the computer. We ran out of degrees to give this morning and started out negative 1. The sun was shining at least so the dog insisted on a walk at lunch. Fully bundled in ski pants and layers I made it a whole 15 minutes while he ran from drift to drift like a lunatic, the slight breeze just made it hard for me to breathe even with a wrap over my mouth and nose. The furry sumo wrestler won’t leave me alone today, apparently he had a short memory and only recalled me rescuing him from the vet. The good news is he can purr and slobber on me and it’s doesn’t stink now, his teeth should be good to go for a long time. We are expecting another shot of snow tonight, something north of 6”, so I might be helping shovel before work and school in the morning. Shepherds pie for dinner. I might get the human burrito out (sauna blanket)and slow bake myself.

 

[jishinsjourney]

Took three days off. It was glorious. Didn’t go anywhere, cooked a bit, enjoyed the chilly weather from inside, worked on some miniatures stuff I haven’t gotten to do in six months.

Today, back to the grind — housecleaning, allergy shot, post office. I can’t believe there was a 45-minute wait at the post office post-Christmas! Oh well.

Tomorrow is more cleaning, game night, and hopefully my last PT session for a while, though I suspect I’ll still be seeing the chiro for a few months.

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

 

[Heartbroken]

I'm a couple hours north of Flint. One of my coworkers lives near Clio.
Managed to get the snow blower going today. That poor thing never got any TLC last fall but it keeps on going. My hands are still cold. Another thing to think about getting older, how long will I be able to wrassle that thing around?
Talked with my brothers, they're willing to help put in a small sub panel and an interconnect so that I can use my generator for critical circuits until such time as I can get a whole house back up of some kind. Hopefully they can do that soon; I really don't trust the grid here and I don't want another weekend like that. In the meantime I'm investing in a battery back up sump pump. That will not only help during an outage, but will be ready to take over if the primary pump ever fails.
My Mattie-dawg was part lab and part husky. She absolutely adored playing the snow and did that cool leap into the air then plunge nose first as deep into the snow as possible thing, like the foxes hunting mice on the nature channel. She did it for the pure fun of it though, she was always laughing when she came back up.
Hooch I hope you got your frozen pipes thawed and there's no damage!

 

[LadyLocust]

I am enjoying my new 4 month old kittens (adopted them last week).

I never thought that trying to adopt kittens that were rescued would be so hard.

We were rejected from a Cat Rescue organization for ..... are you ready for it??? Being to old to adopt kittens. They said that younger families are more stable and better for kittens, as the kittens may live 20 years indoors.

I do not consider 60 to old. I have a longevity in my family history.... 90 and 100 year olds.

I will post their picture soon.

Yay And I can’t believe they discriminate against age!

 

[LadyLocust]

I’m a bit whiney today. Still no water from the kitchen and guest bathroom faucets. And now, the stove is flashing an “F11” error and the oven won’t turn on. Hubby looked it up and the oven needs to be pulled from the wall, the back opened up and the contacts for the buttons cleaned. So, I can only use the stove top. I heated some water and did some dishes last night but my kitchen is getting messy and it’s driving me nuts. My cooking ability is getting limited but I might make some chicken rice soup in the Instant Pot or on the stove top. Or……maybe I’ll ask Hubby to take me out but it’s COLD out.

Do you have a barbecuer? You can slow roast in it. We had power go out one Christmas and the turkey roaster fit - it worked great.

 

[LadyLocust]

Had an out of state friend come for a short visit sorta skirting by the area. We stayed up late talking, slept for a while, then woke up talking more before she had to get going. It was great to see her.
High today was 14 I think. Tomorrow it’s supposed to warm up and snow

 

[viking]

We had a hot water pipe freeze just before the kitchen sink one year, the cold water pipe was further away from the exterior of the house but the hot water pipe froze enough to stop the flow of water... That was really confusing, having cold water but no hot water. I am assuming that you are saying that there is no flow when the hot water is turned on, that's what we saw....

Due to past experiences, when we built our home I installed all of our water lines in an insulated inner wall, the water line from our cistern is all buried and where it comes out of the ground in the crawl space, it's insulated into the insulation between the floor joists and where I have hose bibs, outside, they are all covered with insulated boxes. At the time I built our home Pex hadn't come out yet, all my piping is schedule 40 pvc and cpvc for hot water lines, I even buried close to 600 feet of 1" schedule 40 pvc from our spring down to our cistern, all with a drop of at least 1/8" per foot to keep any water from pooling to keep any still water from freezing during minus temps that might reach deep into the ground. So far this system has worked great, though I will say that we have not had sub freezing temps since 1991.

if you can catch the frozen spot quick enough it should thaw fairly easily , the longer the water sit still the bigger the ice block gets, hopefully the pipes are pex or something a bit flexable

 

[Spikedriver]

I had to thaw both my hot and cold water lines last night. The lines run up to the bathroom inside the northwest corner of the building where the wind really drives the cold through the brick walls. I turned the furnace up to 80°, opened up the kitchen cupboards, and put a space heater in the bathroom. The ice let loose early this morning, but the cold water line burst. The landlady got the plumbers here and it was fixed this evening when I got home. I had no damage in my place but there was some damage in the realtor's office below me.

I had to work another 12 hour shift in the rail yard. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my last day in that position. Hopefully I won't have to work another 12. I've done 97 hours in this arctic weather during that time, and I've had enough.

 

[Bacpacker]

Got a message that work wont open until 10am, subject to further updates. I had already told the boss I was working from home. . Our road is solid ice, our driveway has a curve at the bottom of a hill. I can't get up it when it's icy. Now its icy and has 8" of snow.

 

[Amish Heart]

Hey Winds of change...
my oven back up is a large toaster oven. Bakes things as large as a large pyrex pan. We had beef stew tonight, and that's non oven. New oven coming late tomorrow. I had to do without one for 3 weeks over a Thanksgiving years ago. So I have a propane oven and the toaster oven and dutch oven outdoor gear as a backup.
Looks like there's school tomorrow. And the district voted to close down our little town's grade school. Little granddaughter was hoping for an 8th grade graduation the end of next school year. They want to save money. They really suck.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Just got home from shopping about an hour ago. It was a 10 hour round trip. Of course the roads were snow packed and ice from here to town 18 miles away. From town south the roads were mostly free of snow, just a few icy spots. No problems. Almost everyone around here has 4 wheel drive and studded tires. Many also carry tire chains. We have chains for all of our vehicles. We're prepared for any weather conditions.
High temp today was 8 degs and it's dropping fast now. They're calling for up to 2 feet of snow starting tonight and continuing for the next 10 days.