I was getting worried. A check of the water tank around noon showed the level rising in a most satisfactory manner. However I laid out the yard hose this morning around ten, as soon as the temps went above freezing, and got no more than a trickle. Four hours of no more than a trickle. What that told me is that the underground manifold at the base of the tank has frozen, which is not an unusual occurrence and even more likely after a lengthy period of no water flow.
Best thing to do with an ice plug, when you get even a trickle of water flow, is to go ahead and let it trickle. It took until after two in the afternoon, but when the water began to flow it came all at once.
My first clue was when I heard a faint trickling noise coming from the bathroom, as if the toilet tank were timidly trying to fill for the first time in over a month. And indeed it was, and once I’d allowed the hose to run long enough for the water to flow clear, I also had a functioning kitchen faucet!
The Lair once more has running water!
It’s the little things. With the forecast calling for sun and higher temps in the next few days, I can catch up on my laundry. Oven works! Plumbing works! Nothing’s leaking under the cabin! Uncle Joel happy.
Uncle Joel happy.
About darn time. 🙂
Was supposed to get below zero last night and the night before, with snow and very low daytime temps… so I worked hard and hauled in an inordinate amount of firewood, just in case. Looks like we should expect nice days in the 40s for the next week, and I didn’t even use half of it, so now I suppose I’ll get to haul some of it back out. 🙂 Such is life, and I’m happy for the warm.
Welcome back to civilization.
RE: cistern sludge – would there be any advantage to a “settling tank” in the system ahead of the cistern to trap sediment?
I really don’t know, Nosmo. I’ve got some neighbors with two cisterns, the second one filling from the overflow of the first, and they both sludge up. So somehow you’d need to arrange for the water in the settling tank to stay for days before pumping it into the actual cistern. I can’t imagine how to make that work.
Congratulations, Joel! You were due a break. I suspect even the chore of laundry will be less drudgery, now that you can reflect on one more problem solved.
Great! Now you can get back to your real business, rodent genocide.