OK, it's cold enough, thanks...

[altivo]

We're at -6°F and dropping. The "freezeless" hydrant in one barn is frozen. Oddly, that has never happened before, even when we had temperatures of -20 a few years back. The animals are not complaining much, actually, as long as they get fed and preferably extra rations.

I'm complaining though. I'm getting old enough for this to make my joints stiff. We have the woodstove going 24 hours a day, which we haven't done at all in recent years. The house is comfortable enough, but going outside to do animal chores is painful.

Supposed to be worse tomorrow, then gradually improving. No long posts from here for a day or two. It's too cold to sit at the computer (far end of the house from the woodstove.)

Comments

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Ick. :( Ick ick ick.

Well, don't worry...I'll completely understand if you're not around Sunday night.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'll put on an extra sweater. ;p

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

It is cold. The Pontiac is deader than a doornail, as the old saying goes. The pickup's power steering is complaining loudly.
So I'm just staying in.
The house is working okay so far.
Sorry to hear about your hydrant.
I wish this cold snap was shorter.
Take care.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The hydrant should be fine when it finally thaws out. The question is how did it freeze up and how long will it take to come loose again.

frozen pipes

[(Anonymous)]

OK this will not be the same from your standpoint, BUT, my barn waterpipes froze here in
scottsdale, AZ and it was a bit pain in the rear to get replacement pipes!

Re: frozen pipes

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hopefully nothing needs replacement. Fixing a frost free hydrant requires digging a huge hole.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

That's not good... odd that the things should freeze at this point though... maybe it's insulation is getting weak? No idea how that really works...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No insulation at all. These hydrants use a long pipe that extends down three to five feet underground, where they are attached to a water supply line. That's deep enough that it isn't supposed to freeze. The actual valve is located there. When you turn it on (by tripping a long vertical lever) the water rises in the vertical pipe until it comes out the spout. When you turn it off, the water in the vertical line drains back out underground, leaving nothing to freeze.

The problem is likely occasioned by the exceedingly warm weather we had in December and January, with lots of rain. The ground is saturated to considerable depth, and then froze in the cold. Water did not drain from the vertical line because it had nowhere to go, and then froze there.

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

We got wind chill down to -30C here tonight.

Brrr!

Hopefully you guys all keep warm enough tonight.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We're warm enough, thanks, as long as the power stays on. Of course, the legislature just let the controls on electric rates expire, so we expect our next electric bill to be up by 25% or more.

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

i love woodstoves :)

gomake a nice hot mug of hot cocoa ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The woodstove is a good, reliable source of heat. Unfortunately it's also a large producer of greenhouse emissions. And it needs wood, something we're running low on and will have to get more of.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's already down to 0 here. It was really warm most of the first half of the winter, so the ground absorbed a lot of water, and now that it's been frozen solid for two weeks, the tiny cracks in the basement floor keep getting a little wider. Even though the frost line is supposed to max out at 4 feet, I bet it could very well be down almost that far.

I think we're supposed to get that in the next day or two..cold as heck all week and then finally (or so they say), warming up to seasonable temperatures next week.

Winter is never the same twice here.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

For that kind of cold, notice in my pictures I'm wearing the Fargo-style fur-lined hat and insulated coveralls. All I was wearing underneath those were sweatpants and a sweatshirt. They're good for -20 if you add more layers.

Because I go out to visit Yukon on a daily basis and do chores outdoors 'year round, they're a necessity.

We have the big stove going...once the basement floor warms up, it keeps the whole house nice and toasty. Haven't had the furnace on all day.

[damnbear.livejournal.com]

*throws a few shaggy warm blankets on you and Gary*

We're on the opposite side of the 0 mark from you, but all the same it's still a tad cold. I must be getting used to 6 degree weather, it doesn't feel that it's biting in the same way when we dropped from 60 degrees to the mid twenties.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Blankets and quilts, yay! And dogs and cats on top of them too.

If it gets too cold for you and Lobo, crawl under here with us. ;p

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

keep warm - cuddle up

:O)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Working on it. Still -6°F this morning, but at the moment there's little wind at least.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

*tries to warm you up with a big horsie hug*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*grins and shares his horsey blanket with you*

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

I think the cold is making /my/ joints hurt and they
are a late 60s model. >.<

Isn't it Glorious!

*wanders around in the cold and gets yelled at to
come inside*

I can see it now, its 2050 and its -20 outside. The
nurses chase him around.

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

At the present, I'd say that's unlikely. By 2050 it won't be getting this cold. Instead they'll be trying to get you inside to keep you from getting heatstroke.

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

High, persistent moisture content in the soil can conduct the frost deeper since it doesn't act as an insulator when it's wet (much like any insulation). Compression (like walking or driving) also can accelerate driving the frost deeper too. We have to be remarkably competent about laying water lines up here, as long as the cold season can be, and the way it's not just plain cold, but goes through repeated freeze-thaw cycles that assure moisture is driven down far.

My water line is 8-10' deep and I made sure to keep it in a shaded area that doesn't get driven over. It only freezes where it comes up into the cabin. Which it does every few weeks during winter. It's no fun when that happens, but this last stretch of bitter cold and wind managed to freeze it badly enough that it took me a day or so to thaw it. I think the heat tape came unplugged too.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The problem is certainly something like that. We've had a month of unseasonably warm weather with a lot of rain and snow that melted. The ground was getting spongy, which is unusual here because this clay-silt mixture doesn't absorb or pass water easily. Then the temperature started dropping and staying below freezing day and night.

I suspect the water line itself is not frozen, but the gravel where the freezeless valve should drain after use is probably full of trapped water that has frozen. Thus the valve didn't drain out and water froze in the vertical pipe above the valve. We're putting a heat tape on the vertical, which can't hurt but probably won't solve the problem until temperatures get back up to normal levels.

The valve in the little horsebarn is fine. It is well sheltered and appears to drain well after use. The one in the arena is the problem. It's not well located, being so close to a steel wall that you can barely get your hands in to open it, and it has always tended to stiffen up in cold weather. The arena sits raised on some kind of fill, about 12 to 18 inches above the average ground level here, so that much of the vertical pipe in the valve is really not buried below the frost level as it should be. If it's a six foot valve, then it reaches just barely below our average frost level on one side.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Its been unseasonally cool here this summer, though January was right on par. I am kind of glad I don't have to deal with such cold temperatures O.O

Thats too cold for me O.O *sits by your wood stove and doesn't move, mowing when it needs restoking*