Alaskan's Journal

[fuzzi]

We are STUCK in the teens as a high!

The nice thing is that it is cold enough that there isn't any more snow coming down. Nice to not have to shovel.

And... walking to the chickens for their second serving of fresh water today....

There was an eagle perched on top of the goose coop. And I was all "hummmm, have you found a way into my coops?"

Here is a photo of him flying off as I approached.

And no, he had NOT found a hole! I have wire tops on my runs.

The geese were in the furthest away from the eagle corner of their pen, all quiet and together looking up at him. Interesting that they didn't holler out and try to scare him off. The flock is big enough, I have 8.

Submit that photo to the POW thread!

Edit: I see you already did, good.

 

[Baymule]

Stuck in the teens would be a catastrophe here!

 

[Alaskan]

Well.....

Stupid forever in the negatives without much snow... remember the bunch of snow didn't start to show up until just this past Sunday night... and we have been in the negatives over a month now, maybe more??

Anyway that (insert MANY explatives) house that my baby sister built. Super (more explatives) poor construction.

And the water in the wellhouse froze up. We put more heat in the wellhouse... it still didn't thaw.

I called the well guy, he had a really fancy heat gun thing, took the pipes apart, aimed the heat gun down the pipes and cleared over 3 feet of ice.

Water came on (insert more explatives covering all aspects of this house and it's design), and it was greatly appreciated since the poorly insulated, zero house wrap house has only one source of heat... in floor heating that needs water to work. Also... the house is very tall, 3 levels, and fully exposed on all sides to wind.

And then, 30 minutes later, the water froze back up.

We moved heaters around, found better heaters that could lean right up against the metal pipes, found that 3 heaters at a time trip the circuits (more explatives), but the wiring can handle two.

At the same time I had the youngest kid race into town, to buy better supplies, but the general store was already closed. The bulk store was still open, and can carry pretty anything, you truly never know what they will have... but they didn't have anything that would help.

It wasn't until the kid got home, that we were thinking of maybe adding the propane heater... but spouse used all of the propane bottles... didn't buy replacements.. the bulk store is now closed, can't buy any until tomorrow.

What. A. Pain.

 

[Alaskan]

By the way... here is a photo of the produce section last week...

 

[drstratton]

I'm so sorry! I hope it starts to warm up for you soon. You all have challenges I don't have to deal with.

 

[Alaskan]

Ha! It turns out that the 2 propane tanks that I bought for the blow torch (I refuse to risk not having a blow torch)... DO fit into the ports on the propane heater! SCORE!

So, propane heater with lots of fuel, is turned on and pointed right at the metal pipes, it is roaring away and will have plenty of fuel for an all night run. All plastic and burnables have been cleared, one metal electric heater is still on there just as a fail-safe.

 

[Baymule]

I hope you can keep it thawed out and keep warm!

 

[SageHill]

EEEE YIKES. I remember below zero temps a lot growing up. Dripping faucets, frozen pipes, etc. Absolutely the worst.
Probably wouldn't work - but I've seen farmer/ranchers who use heat tape on water lines in their barns. But of course in a house and then thinking that's something probably to do during construction if it's even an option.

 

[Mini Horses]

I have heat tapes on my in barn pipes, the covered in foam pipe covers. Works great. I plug them in when real cold comes. Inside barn the foam covers do most of what's needed except severe temps day & nights....then they're plugged in for that time.

 

[SageHill]

I have heat tapes on my in barn pipes, the covered in foam pipe covers. Works great. I plug them in when real cold comes. Inside barn the foam covers do most of what's needed except severe temps day & nights....then they're plugged in for that time.

Wonder how well they work in prolonged sub-zero temps.