Gary's Third Pottery Blog

When the going gets tough, dragons gonna get going....

Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Friday, February 27, 2015

the wrapup....



(new vases by Gary Rith)

February has had some challenges. We are told Ithaca has had its coldest February on record BUT, even worse, it has been the coldest month on record. EVER! And today and Saturday: still below zero.

As a matter of fact, NO temps have been above freezing all month.  Sunday 3/1 looks better, 30s and snow!  As a professional dog walker I have been frozen like peas since October.

Yesterday we had a terrible shock:  no water.  The well was not getting anything into the house at all.  That is a real "OH SH!T" situation: broken pump, deep down there?  Full of ice??? BURST PIPES????
I spent the morning digging around in the filth, ice, mud of our well head and found it was OK, but the clever heated and insulated box protecting our pipes had been breached.  7 times.  There were 7 little mouse holes into what would be a warm space for them to spend the winter, but which allowed the below zero temps to blow on our pipes.

It was all pretty terrifying and frustrating.    I didn't know what to do to get water, which is scary, but I had to do something, so filled the mouse holes. Apparently this allowed the warm air in the pipe box to work, and suddenly there was water. No problems at all... you hear that mice can eat your wires and cause a fire, but they can do other destructive things too, right?

The wife sent the first quote.
I thought about it for a second and wrote the reply.  Have a great weekend!
 

7 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

What, no selfie of you confronting the wildlife which stole your water system? You are a pioneering man, dealing with all the wilds of nature!

Lori Buff said...

Those mice have not been your friends this winter. Glad it worked out for the best and you didn’t have to melt snow for your water source.

Your wife is a classy woman.

bartster said...

Terrible when stuff breaks when it's miserable harsh cold. Good on you for the repair!

Michèle Hastings said...

Frozen pipes and well pump are soooo inconvenient! We have been battling it here in the south too. We too have an insulated box with a light in our pump house to avoid the dreaded freeze.

Hilary said...

Ack.. I feel for you.. messing around out there in the cold but so glad you've resolved the problem. Drink up!

Anonymous said...

How horrible! Mice are miserable creatures. Sorry about the mess they made, but lucky you got water back so easily!

soubriquet said...

You can get self regulating trace heating tapes for your pipe. The tape is formed of two electrical wires that are connected by a material that only conducts electricity below a certain temperature. You simply attach one end to a gfci protected outlet (you could use a plug-in gfci adaptor), wrap the tape around the pipe in a long spiral, and when freezing temperatures are close, the tape will heat slightly. It's trivial power usage, 5W per foot. Insulate over and all's well.

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I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.