Winter is back

I haven't forgotten about you, lovely blog-readers, and I promise I'll be back Sunday with a proper post.

For now, let me describe my morning.

I woke up when the alarm went off at 5:20, and managed to roll out of bed by 5:37.  I start my normal routine: get dressed, gather my phone, wallet and keys, and amble out to the kitchen.  Let the dogs out (we're fostering a pup, Dash - more on that later), grab the cat dishes, and check the outdoor temperature: -26.  Wowzers, that's cold.  I checked the pumphouse temperature (both are remote thermometers): -0.9.  Uh-oh.  The heat lamp is on in there, but obviously it can't keep up when it gets this cold.  Okay.  I'll run the water for a bit and see what happens.

So, I feed the cats, call in the dogs, get them fed, and refresh the water dish.  I do my bathroom thing - hair, teeth, litterbox, etc. - with the cold tap in the bathroom running just a bit.  By the time I make it back out to the kitchen, we have almost no water pressure.  The pumphouse had warmed up to -0.6, but it's now back down at -0.9 again.  Crap.  This is going to require some intervention.

There is an electric space heater in the barn, along with a troublelight I can use as an extension cord.  While I'm heading out, I may as well bring out some warm oatmeal for the chooks.  So I whip up some oatmeal while I pull on my winter 'town' gear - giant blue fleece pants and my good black jacket.  I add a balaclava under my toque and forego the scarf, and get my big gloves.  I dump the oatmeal into a metal pie plate, stuff my feet into my boots, and head out with the dogs.

In the barn, I call the chickens - "Here, chickchickchick!" - and set the pie plate on the ground.  I do a quick count - 4 hens and Foghorn, the roo.  We have a broody hen right now (in this weather?!!) that I have named Phoebe, so I lift and push and jostle her out of the nest box and out to the oatmeal, giving her a quick visual inspection  as I move her.  The others look alright, and I check the temperature; it's a chilly -18.6 on the ledge just outside the coop stall.  This isn't picking up any heat from the composting bedding, and it will only register a bit of the heat lamp's effects, so I call it good and start unhooking the trouble light.  We set it up in the coop stall a few weeks ago as we shoveled the snow off the barn roof - I was concerned that they wouldn't get enough light if the snow covered the window to the stall (which is a very real possibility) so I set up the timer and got the light ready so all I had to do was plug it in if it was needed.  After untangling the cords, I closed the stall door and grabbed the heater on my way back to the house.

The dogs weren't interested in heading inside, so they followed me across the snow to the pumphouse.  We've shoveled out the door a few times now, but some more snow had blown in so I headed back to the deck to grab a shovel.  Zim had started picking up his feet and stopped to lick one along the way, so I tucked both dogs inside and grabbed the shovel.  I moved enough snow to get in to the pumphouse, then got to work trying to warm it up.

I positioned the toublelight cord so it was out of the way, and plugged in the heater.  It didn't seem to be working - it warmed up for a few seconds, but the fan wouldn't turn and after a few minutes I wasn't getting any more heat.  There is an older heater in there already, so I tried plugging that in, with only slightly better results: I have heat, but no fan.  These things are dangerous when the fan stops - the heat doesn't move and ends up melting the heater and can cause fires.  Okay, I'll take the good heater inside and warm it up.  In the mean time, I decide to lower the heat lamp that is currently hanging from a pipe strap that's been nailed to the ceiling.  I take the lamp down, and as I'm tying a piece of wire to the nail it falls out of the ceiling.  Wow.  Now I'm actually starting to get worried - can I fix this and get the pumphouse warm again??

Back in the house, I grab a drill, some screws, some wire (similar to the stuff I rigged the funnels up with) and the tools to cut and twist it.  I double check our heater - it is now warm enough after a few minutes in front of the fireplace, and when I twist the knob, the elements glow and the fan starts to turn.  Awesome!

Back outside, I start phase two of the fix.  I add a 3" screw on the wall above the heater so I can hang the troublelight and keep the cords out of the way.  I plug in the good heater and it still works!  I screw the hose anchor to the ceiling again, and cut a strand of wire to allow me to lower the heat lamp.  After I get that all sorted, I take a minute to survey my work.  As I reposition the batt of fiberglass insulation on top of the pressure tank and adjust the heater's thermostat, I notice that I can no longer see my breath.  I also notice that the pressure in the tank is at 80 psi.  "That's pretty high," I think to myself, but some fiddling with the pump control doesn't help, and I don't know enough about it to troubleshoot or fix it.  But I figure that it's made it this far, it will probably make it through today too.

I make sure the pumphouse door is closed as tight as possible, and head back to the house.  I dump my tools on the deck by the front door and head around the back to ensure the house's heat tape is still plugged in - yes!  I can see the cord plugged in to the outlet - I have to move that this summer - so I start the car to get ready to head in to work.  I take my tools in and check the bathroom tap - the pressure continues to drop.  I run some hot water in the kitchen to make some tea, but I get only a few drops before the water stops.  STOPS.  WE HAVE NO HOT WATER IN THE KITCHEN.  I turn off the tap in the bathroom and check again - nothing.  PANIC!!!!!  The pumphouse thermometer says +8.6 and rising.  I frantically text Jordan: "Our pipes are freezing" and strip off my town gear to get into my farm gear: blue bib ski pants stained with gear oil and a filthy blue jacket.  I switch my toque - no sense getting my nice knitted one dirty - and grab the hair dryer.  My plan is to grab the big extension cord that we use for the vehicles, and somehow crawl under the deck to get under the house and warm up the frozen pipes before they burst.  Our crawlspace is tiny and it's just sand with some strange mold growing on it (yes, it's lovely).  Just before putting on my farm boots, I turn on the hot water tap in the kitchen to allow the water to move as I thaw the pipes - and water comes out.  Fast.  We are back to full pressure!  I check the cold tap - it works!  I check the bathroom taps - they work too!  I sink on to the coffee table and text Jordan "Ok, it's ok, they're good now," which is quickly followed by "Holy shit this is nuts."  I check the pumphouse temperature again: +9.8 and still rising.  Whew!

So, since I've already emailed in late to work, I make my bagel and my tea, gather the rest of my work stuff, and change back into my town gear.  As I head out the door for the final time this morning, the pumphouse is at +11.0 and continues to get warmer.

Now I'm just hoping that it's not a pile of cinders when I get home.


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As mentioned, there is a proper post coming soon - I have a few great post ideas, but I have a hard time finding the time to actually write and compile them.   This Sunday I'll get to it, I promise!