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01/26/2010: "Winter projects"

My already irregular posting schedule has suffered lately, as farm trips have been relatively infrequent and I've been rebuilding my computer. Plus, Lou and I did a whole project in which none of the photos I took turned out! This relates back to last summer when my daughter borrowed the camera while eating sticky cotton candy, but that's a story for another day.

The only interesting photo I have to show is from a recent trip where I ran out of things to do... unbelievable, eh? Well, I didn't actually run out of things to do, but rather ran out of things that I could do in the time available. So I was reduced to organizing the shop a bit. Quite successful, I think. I found out that we were woefully under-stocked in 1/2" PVC fittings, which is a problem because a lot of the water supply is comprised of 1/2" PVC pipe.

The lack of 1/2" PVC fittings was a factor in the undocumented project, too. About a month ago we had really, really cold weather in the Valley: Lou measured it as 11 degrees F one night, and 8 degrees F another night. It was so cold that the on-demand gas water heater at the house froze and split because of the wind whistling down the exhaust outlet. Dang. Lou repaired that one on his own, bless him.

The cold weather also froze the pipes under the cottage where Grandma and Grandpa are living presently. Lou had instructed them to run the water during the night, to keep things moving, but unfortunately they only ran the cold water. The hot water pipes eventually froze and burst in multiple places. So the last two trips have involved crawling under the cottage with the PVC cutters and the PVC glue. Pity I don't have any pictures, as it was raining and the ground was muddy and we were a sight. But we got it repaired.

We're sort of running out of little projects. I painted the fascia for the north side of the barn the last time I was down, so we're ready to put gutters on that side. After that... well, we either need to start building forms for the barn foundation (ulp!) or dig the deep trench from the new dry well to the cellar (ulp!) or tile the south yard with a rented trencher, or start restoring the Allis-Chalmers tractor in anticipation of the next growing season.

The Proprietor wrote:

Sorry to hear about your plumbing woes.

I am surprised you are having so much difficulty at 11 F. We are below 0
routinely and -10 at least a couple of times a year. -25F is what we figure
as our yearly minimum. In our rambling farm house, I've only had frozen
pipes a handful of times, often because I left a hole open. The difference
might be because we have a full basement and I am sure it has to do with
tightening up the air leaks in the basement. We haven't had anything freeze
since I went to town with expanding foam insulation, about eight years.

I wonder if you could protect yourself with something as simple as that 1
inch thick foam pipe insulation or similar ways to buffer the pipes from
cold temps and drafts. And anything that traps some of the heat from the
warm living space floor above would probably help also. When I replumbed
Our Elle kitchen I considered putting an insulating box around the pipes
against the floor above. Before we had moved out of that kitchen 5 years
before, freezing pipes were a problem. But I found the combination of
tightening the exterior walls and adding some partitions in the cellar
trapping the warm air have kept us safe so far.

Kurt responds

The cottage was built incredibly cheaply - sits on blocks, with pipes spanning open floor joists exposed to the weather! Literally, whatever temperature it is outside is the temperature next to the pipe. Lou and I have agreed to do some insulating and perhaps even some heat tape to make it more weather-proof. Thanks for writing.