Came home from the Opry on Thursday night to find that we had no water. Our pipes had frozen. Durn.

This happened last year about this time as well. It just gets so so cold that there is one little vulnerable place in our plumbing under the Moby belly that just freezes up. It’s where the main line comes in from the crock, underneath. Since the water level adjusts and fluctuates, you can’t heat tape wrap it too far down. You can usually keep it open for most of the winter, but when the winds start to blow hard against that southern side of the Moby, and the temps dip down to zero and below, it just doesn’t have a chance.

I’m thinking about trying to build a little insulated house to go around the whole crock. Something that Tim can help with for sure. I’m picturing a little cage, movable, but like a little cage frame with insulation in it, that will make a little cocoon for the area. He said he’d be able to come out and we’ll cook something up.

In the meanwhile, we stockpiled some gallons of water at the store, went and got 10 gallons to start out with. In our park, we have numerous times when the water has been shut off for a few hours, even up to 24 hours. There is a bad main line into the park and they have been working to replace it for the last couple months, but the cold weather is not helping. And when someone’s moby busts pipes around us, the water gets turned off as they fix it.

That happened to our neighbor in front just last week. And he had a real mess, had to have a plumber out for TWO DAYS!!! Wow. That had to be expensive.

But we’re good and calm Moby girls… we knew just what was up. Maggie got a little space heater under there to warm up the area that we knew was frozen. And we waited and we watched, to make sure nothing caught on fire. We kept turns going out and checking on it and turned on a faucet so that we would know when it loosened up. It took about 6 hours to warm up that area. But finally we got our water running again. The girls learned how to make a toliet flush, by pouring water into the tank and they learned not to panic.

Last year, we paniced… this year we were calm. And soon, hopefully Tim can help and we won’t have this problem ever again!!! We’ll brainstorm and figure out something that will help. I love how he listens to my ideas and doesn’t treat them as stupid or anything. And he has great ideas as well, and with a little discussion we can usually come to a good middle ground that makes sense and solves the problem. Goooooood stuff!

I’ll try and brave the weather to document what we’re going to attempt. Because I know that frozen pipes and mobile homes are a very very common problem and if I can help out in any way, that’s good neighborly advice.

In the meanwhile? I do believe I’m going to make a habit of the next couple weeks of picking up an extra gallon or two of spring water to stash in our little pantry floor. With people, pets and potties, I believe you need about 5 gallons a day, to live comfortably. You could probably get away with 3 if you were careful. It’s the toilet that is the worse, really. It needs about 2 gallons to flush properly. Even if you waited and no one flushed until it was really necessary, you’ll need at least one flush a day and then add some for cooking, drinking, washing… I’m thinking 5 gallons a day would be a good idea. So, for a week of water, we will need about 30-35 gallons of water stored. I do want to get a rainbarrel for outside, and that would easily supply some water for the toilet if we had that established. I might get a few of the larger water containers as well, but for the most part, I think the 1 gallon jugs are perfect. You can throw a bunch in the car and go and fill them at a friends house or some other water source in an emergency. The are pretty easy to handle. And easy to store here and there in a small place.

It’s funny how just a little thing like a piece of 2 inch pipe frozen will make you understand just how vulnerable you are in this world. How it take just one snapped power line in an icy winter storm to send you into darkness and cold for days on end. Without water, food and power, we’re pretty helpless! I hate that feeling and would like to think that we are taking a few steps to be a little more self sufficient rather than helpless in those often occurring situations!