If you’ve got animals, you’ve got to provide water. In winter, that can sometimes get to be a problem since it’s got to be water, not ice.
When we first moved here, I used to chop ice out of buckets in the cold weather. Then we invested in heated buckets, and that made things a lot easier. However, that only keeps what water that's already in there from freezing. Sooner or later the buckets need refilled.
If it’s only cold for a day or two, I can wait until the water hoses are thawed out and use them. But when it stays cold day after day, there finally comes a point when I have to carry water.
Yesterday I was about to that point, but the weather was warmer, and I was hoping to be able to use the hoses by mid-afternoon. I got busy and ended up going out a little later than planned. Mistake!
When I walked towards the wellhouse to turn on the faucet, an unwelcome site met my eyes… there was a big puddle of water in front of the wellhouse, and streams of water gushing out of the two drain holes a few inches from the bottom.
I didn't take this until later, and the water wasn't gushing so much.
Not good.
I hollered for the Cave Geek to come help me move the lid off the top of the wellhouse and we peered in. Water a few inches deep and gushing up from somewhere. In a panic, I called The Farmer. Easy temporary solution ... flip the circuit breaker so the pump doesn't keep bringing up more water.
As you can see the water is almost gone. The arrow puts to the problem - a cracked piece of pipe.
It took us a while to find the right circuit breaker to flip, but the water is all drained out. This afternoon The Farmer crawled in and out of the wellhouse a few times - giving those new knees a workout! - and figured out what he needed to fix the problem. He went to the store and bought his supplies, and hopefully tomorrow he'll be able to fix it easily, and without raindrops falling on his head!
Cause we've had enough water in that wellhouse already!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Accckk! Not much worse than having well problems——maybe paying for well problems.
I’m glad Farmer can fix it. We usually end up calling the guys that drilled ours to fix any problems we have.
The joys of having livestock. It brought back memories of the things we had to work through when I was growing up. I’m glad The Farmer can fix the problem without too much trouble.
I learned the hard way the first winter after we moved in, never to keep the hoses attached to our water pumps. We had -7 degree temps for a week and the frost line dropped way low. Between tha and the water freezing in the hoses and carrying into the water pump and pipes all the way down the hill, the pipes froze solid and burst.
We had to carry water up the steep hill twice a day to the animals. Thankfully we only had the llamas then. It would be too hard now.
But we did learn our lesson and never leave our water hoses attached to the pumps. We also keep our water hoses inside our tack room (where it doesn’t get as cold) and in our bathtub in the house until we need them. We never have frozen hoses now. Whew!
I’m glad you’re got a handy Farmer hubby. And how great that he’s doing so well with his new knees, too!
~Lisa
Yes, it was great The Farmer could fix the well without us having to pay someone to come out and do it.
Leaving the hoses attached wasn’t the problem. The faucets/hydrants are the “no freeze” type, and actually shut off below the frostline in the ground. If the hoses froze solid, the worst that would happen would be a busted hose, but there is no nozzles on the end of the hoses so the water can drain out so that doesn’t happen. If I had to move the hoses every time I needed them, I’d be in bad trouble. My pain problems don’t take kindly to dragging a long set of hoses around everywhere.
Thankfully, a new heater should fix the problem so the pipes connected to the holding tank in the wellhouse don’t freeze again.