Running Water!

We are celebrating having running water after 12 days of freezing temps and a frozen waterline. We carried 40 to 50 gallons of water a day, toted in 5-gallon buckets. Estimating an average of 45 gallons a day for 11 days would make 3,960 pounds, or just under two tons of water that we carried about 50 yards from the hydro shed to the lodge. Jen is very proud of both half-filled buckets she lugged (8 pounds or .002 tons). I have to admit that she always offered to help, but it was just too painful watching her struggle with two half-filled buckets, then return to the water source with two empty buckets only to reach the house with the equivalent of one full bucket.

Here we are lamenting the lack of running water on day 11. I discovered that Head and Shoulders shampoo just won't lather in the snow. We had to wait for the temps to get out of the teens and closer to freezing before attempting to get the water running again. Our next problem, once temps warmed up, was that both our waterlines had ice blockages, and are buried under several feet of snow, compacted with rain, and frozen into a concrete-like consistancy. The solution came to me one day when I was working under the deck and looked at the empty waterline running from the lodge to the dock, which we had drained in the fall. I got my long tape from the boat and measured it at 175 feet. The distance from the lodge to the hydroshed......175 feet! Problem solved.

Of course, nothing ever goes entirely according to plan. When I first tried to hook the line up, I discovered that the valve at the supply end was frozen--there was heat tape around it, but I had unplugged it after the pipes froze. I plugged the tape back in and went up the next morning to discover that the heat tape was dead and the valve still frozen. I put a new heat tape on it, and after a few hours I heard the roar of water coming from the valve. Yesss! I hooked up the waterline and opened the valve, but was shocked to find that not a single drop of water was coming out of the lodge end of the line! I took the whole 175 foot line off and dragged it down to the beach to let it warm in the salt water of the bay. After soaking for a few hours the ice blocking the line melted enough to shake out, and we were finally in business with our makeshift waterline to hopefully last us until the end of April!

Clean dishes, clean laundry, clean hillbillies--one happy crew after a 12-day drought. Feral, always fastidiously clean, shot this epic photograph.