But our water line is still frozen. How can that be? My inventive husband saw that our spring catchment basin was nearly unfrozen and the water was pristine. Hmmmm. So he had me haul hoses and he connected up our irrigation pump to the intake pipe in the basin. The far end of the hose went into our basement storage tanks. A few pulls on the starter rope and we were in business. We did add bleach to our storage tanks … just to be safe. (I’m still hauling drinking/cooking water from the Idington spring.)
However, we were nearly out of propane after ordering and prepaying for it over a week ago. We dearly wanted a long, hot shower after minimal battery-operated showers and “bird-baths.” I wondered out loud if we couldn’t hook one of our 20# LP tanks to the water heater. Will took it from there and did just that! We each had a wonderful long, hot shower! Ahhhh. Less trips to the spring and being able to flush the toilet more normally. Hooray!
And now we have 600 gallons of spring water in our storage tanks with the ability to refill them on above freezing days. Wow! Waiting for the water line to thaw isn’t so important now.
We’ve hit another cold spell with highs in the high twenties and low low thirties so we’re still burning wood in the living room and kitchen. (With scarcely any propane, I’m cooking on the wood stove.) Hauling wood in is still a pretty much daily chore. Spencer helps by carrying in wood and lately, Will has gotten Hondo to bring in wood too. Both dogs are so proud to carry “their” own wood in, bouncing and dancing around us for praise. Spencer even drops his in the wood box. — Jackie
Jackie I’m glad you missed out on Mother Nature’s latest “gift”. We got 13″ here in northern WI! Uff da, and here I was planning on doing yard work this weekend.
Wendy,
We dodged the bullet on that storm; we only got a skiff and that melted off today. But it is kind of cold and I’m itching to get gardening.
Kentucky Kid,
Will has already made several wood-fired water heaters but our problem is that it’s much more convenient to use the propane one and it’s already in place in our basement. To use a wood-fired one, we’d have to run a metalbestos chimney all the way from the basement to the roof of the house where the propane heater ony has a small diameter vent pipe. Then there’s the heating of the basement (and our root cellar/pantry) and extra heat in the summer. But we’re happy to know that push come to shove we CAN heat water with wood.
Wow! Garden dirt! Mine’s still frozen with snow banks! I’m jealous.
M Blaney,
It’s “fake” wood, laminate! Of course we’d have rather had real hickory or ash but just can’t spare the money. The laminate has a 30 year guarantee and friends say theirs is dog-proof. We got it on sale at Menards (Brizilian Koa) and it went in pretty easily in several hours. We love it.
Hurray you have water! From the news, it also looks like maybe you’re getting a bit more snow. :( Love the photo of the dogs. Hondo is learning well!
I always get a kick out of the dogs hauling firewood. Talk about a useful trick!
Propane is great stuff, but like all “store-bought” fuels, you are completely at the mercy of the delivery service unless you buy it in small enough containers to haul yourself. You appear to have the home heating problem pretty well under control with the use of self-harvested wood. Now all ya gotta do is come up with a practical wood-fired water heating process. I’ll bet yer resourceful hubby can work that out . . . he’s obviously a pretty handy fella.
Spring’s a-coming. We got a few starts into the garden dirt last weekend, and the tomatoes and peppers are almost ready to go from under the “lights”.
Hi Jackie
Great picture of the two puppies. Also wanted to say great flooring! What type of wood is it because it looks gorgeous!
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