Being Prepared

The weather this winter has been crazy, jumping from the high 60's to below freezing in just a day. Up until this week, we have had only one day with snow. This was going to change, though, as we looked at our forecast and saw that we were due for temperatures in the teens along with some precipitation.


We were dutiful and got everything tucked away in preparation, making sure that all of the outside animals would be able to brave the horrendous two whole days of cold weather until the temperatures jumped back up into the 50s.

The snow was pretty, light, and fluffy, and Tad and I spent the whole day in town while he was at work and I hung out with friends. We headed back home around 4 o'clock, which would leave us just enough daylight to do a perimeter of the house and make sure everything was in line before heading inside for the night.

Upon getting home, I tried to turn on the kitchen faucet only to find the water was not running. Curious, I ran throughout the house and tried every single faucet.

Nothing.

Finally I put two and two together.

Temperatures in the teens all day + A foreclosed upon house that was vacant for two years = frozen pipes.


I will admit that I had a moment of sheer panic. I had cows, chickens, cats, and a dog that needed to be watered. Not to mention that I was pretty thirsty myself. Ridiculous thoughts began running through my head, which I entirely blame on watching too many episodes of Man Vs. Wild:

We have a pond... could I haul in buckets of water and boil it on the stove to make it safe for drinking? There was lots of snow... could I melt it?

Then I realized we had a well pump in the yard, and that I should try that first before resorting to boiling pond water on the stove.

The well worked, and we hauled in several gallons of water into the house for the night just in case the well decided to freeze, too.

We spent an hour outside in the waning light of day with a hairdryer, desperately trying to thaw the uninsulated water pipe until finally calling it quits. Tad did a makeshift insulating job with some newspaper in an attempt to help move the process along, and we spent the rest of the night drinking water out of empty gallon pickle jars.

All of the taps were left open just a little, because we heard from various sources that that was the thing to do in this situation. I groggily yet gleefully woke up in the morning to the steady sound of all the faucets in the house making a chorus of drip drip drip, and I found that we had hot water, at least, flowing once again to the house. The cold water tap finally started working a few hours later.

We have been so fortunate to have a mild winter thus far, and even more so because the cold snap only lasted two days and gave way to warmer weather for which to better mend the pipes. You would think that uninsulated exposed piping under the house would be something that would show up on the home inspection report, but I guess not.

So, lessons learned:

1. Check your newly purchased, previously vacant, and foreclosed upon home for uninsulated pipes before it starts to freeze outside.
2. Keep a supply of water on hand (we will be purchasing a few gallons as a precautionary measure).
3. Make friends with your neighbors. Looking back, I know that we had many people around us who would have gladly helped us out if we had really needed it.
4. Check your well for water before resorting to drinking pond water/snow.