A new year dawned, a year full of... "adventure."
Our rock steps from the RV pad up to the driveway-- solid ice.
Popsicle, anyone? It's the no-sugar variety.
It seems strange to put photos of January up in July! If you don't have air conditioning, I hope these cool you off.
We were blessed that the furnace kept us warm in the rented RV, but we did have water woes. Despite our best efforts, (heat-tape-wrapped hose, insulated box over the spigot, buried line, insulation wrapped above-ground hose) the heat tape failed and the line froze, and froze hard. On top of that woe, some of us were sick with something like the flu.
January has our new holiday-- "Water Day"-- instituted
so we can remember how grateful we were when the line was thawed at last
and we had water coming out of the tap again.
What we are
supposed to do for "Water Day" is ceremoniously
trudge up the hill and get water out of the (freeze-proof) hydrant in a
bucket and carry it back down, in honor of what we had to do when the
water froze up for three days. Now our children can say that they went
up-and-down-hill in the ice and snow to hall water.
However now that life is more comfortable, we just
remember "Water Day" and skip the snowy pilgrimage.
Here's my living in an RV tip: buy the heated hose meant for RV's. Don't try to be cheap and DIY that part with heat tape (after that day, we
always
had the hundred-dollar blue heated hose). And, dollar store turkey basters are a great
thing to keep around in case you have a freeze. I won't go into
details, but it saved the day.
The water line to the washing machine in the house froze, too. The heat tape up there hadn't failed, but the extension cord to the heat tape failed.
A month earlier when the washer froze up the first time, I
thawed it the wrong way, and managed to flood the house, and it froze
like an ice rink. I didn’t want to repeat that
experience…. oh wait,
did I not tell you that story? Well, it wasn’t like anyone needs to know about
that ! Let’s move on.
(I should tell you that if you go to your building site, open your front door and see your subfloor and extension cords covered in water, please make sure the electricity is OFF before you panic and plunge into the water to fix it. I don't know why I am still alive, but perhaps it is to warn others.)
A neighborhood visitor, seen through the RV window.To be continued...
