When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
It's frosty pepper up my nose
excerpt from Winter Time by Robert Lous Stevenson
Well, I have finally come up from air. Never before or at least in recent years has the phrase, "baby it's cold outside", hit home like it did this weekend.
We live in the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire and are a relatively hardy bunch of people. Three feet of snow is a normal amount of snow for this time of year and we are used to the cold temperatures as well. May not always love them, but we know to expect them.
Typically when the temps drop below zero we trickle the water in this old house because we know that some of the pipes will freeze. Ken drags out a ceramic heater and drops it down into the crawl space that we get to call part of our basement and wait for the temperatures to rise again before we pull it out. It is a royal PIA to be honest with you, but it beats frozen pipes for sure!
When the temperatures dipped to -26 degrees on Friday after a long spell of minus something degrees, we never gave a thought to trickling the water out in my shop. Not even one single little thought, so when Ken came in with sort of a sick look on his face Saturday morning after getting ready for a trip to the dump, I knew something was up. My comment to him was, "spit it out…what's wrong?" When he told me that the pipes had frozen out in the shop I just wanted to throw up. You know that feeling when you bump your head really hard and you drop to your knees and see stars. Yes, that feeling.
Normally it would not be that huge of a deal, but I had just finished running a very successful New Years sale, which meant a lot of dyeing was going to happen. So much so that I closed down my website to be sure that I could get everyone's orders to them in a timely manner. I just closed my eyes and wanted to disappear in that moment. It was not Ken's fault, so I didn't want to appear to be upset with him, but truly…yes, those stars.
Ken, God bless his heart, worked tirelessly trying to free up the pipe that was frozen, all the while with a nasty cold. Crawling in the crawl space, heating the pipes, digging up the air vaults that he placed on each end of the water line from the house to the shop to no avail. We tried putting a hose on top of the snow from the frost free spigot connected to the house out to the shop via a window but that pipe burst….agggh, so we resorted to hauling water in the old fashioned way, in big buckets..not.fun!
Ken finally admitted defeat and called in the plumber. Neither one of us wanted to have to spend the money if he could fix it, but sometimes you just do what you have to do and God bless our plumber's chatty soul (because he is SO chatty), he was able to find where the freeze was and blast it out.
To any of you young men who are not sure you want to go to college. Please, be a plumber or an electrician. You will be worth your weight in gold!!
(and the pay is pretty darn good too!)
The Woolen Rabbit 
Having a plethora of electricians in my life, my vote is for a plumber! So glad you finally got the problem fixed … hopefully it doesn’t ever happen again!
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I could use a good plumber. Like Jo-Ann, I have plenty of electricians around! I’m so glad this got worked out for you and I hope it wasn’t too terribly expensive.
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I heard an interesting speaker when I was still teaching. He said that 50 years ago, 20 percent of jobs required a college degree. Of the remaining jobs, 80% were unskilled and 20% were employed in skilled vocations. Today the jobs requiring degrees are at about 22%, but the other categories are flipflopped. About 80% of the jobs not requiring a degree are skilled technical work, requiring some post high school education. Hooray for plumbers and electricians!
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I’m listening to the trickle of three taps right now, and have been for most of the past week (central MA). Been in the situation you describe many times over the years, and I really, really sympathize. Also, re: calling the plumber = last resort! Yesterday I replaced a fill valve in a toilet I could barely reach without contortionist skills and a mirror, but the money saved on a plumber paid for my goat/hen grain order today. Now, fingers crossed I’m done with moving sacks of grain til the ice is gone!
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Glad it all turned out well in the end. I’ll admit to being on tenterhooks for a while keeping my fingers crossed for a good outcome. Yup electrical engineer here at home, so we’re covered in that department, but a plumber? We usually have to hire out for that and have on several occasions. Ka-ching, ka-ching!
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Just what you didn’t need! Ugh. Glad you’re back on track Kim and hopefully it didn’t cost you too much!
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Whether furnace repair or plumbing, this time of year we need their expertise! Why is it the worst happens when we’re in a crunch anyway? I hope all goes well for you now that the problem is solved!
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Argh — so frustrating. I can just image the scene as it played out — Ken is such a great guy! Glad that things are going well. And I totally agree about plumbers and electricians.
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Winter–bah!
I love the quote today. Thanks!
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Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I am/was SOOOO there with you. I have spent the majority of my adult life living in the high country of the Rockies where this kind of weather was/is also pretty typical, frozen pipes, and all- so I’m hoping by now that Ken is feeling better, the water is working and all is well in your world. Here in Missouri (where I live now) we only hit -9. Not so bad.
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Kim,
I sm so sorry for the deep freeze many are having this winter. I know it’s not any fun. Praises for your husbands attempt to thaw your shop out and the back-up plumber. I agree, plumbers are needed and greatly appreciated. We also trickle the water. I assume you are on well water? It sure does help, although it’s a little annoying hearing the water “run” constantly.
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Seriously, I tried to get my girls to be something useful like that. Even hair dresser or massage therapist, something I could USE! Now I’ll just be introducing Erin to every young plumber or electrician I meet!
Glad you are back on track.
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I’m so glad you got it fixed. What a mess. Urrrrgh.
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Despite all your issues with frozen pipes, you’re timely in getting our yarn to us. Yesterday I received my 2 skeins of Lucent and they are SO beautiful! Thanks, Kim and stay warm.
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