A lesson in patience and humility

As I blogged yesterday we were bitten by the bitter cold and winds with frozen pipes. We fought all day Wednesday trying to de-thaw them. We had a small propane heater (Coleman BlackCat), and while it did knock the chill off the well house, it just was not doing enough. Yesterday afternoon I decided to advance to the next step. A few years ago for Christmas my in-laws gave us this propane heater I think it is called the Little Buddy or something like it. When my husband goes camping this heater is sure to go along. I left the house to get more propane and water. By the time I got back and got the heater in the well house and going, it was right at 5pm.

My husband got home around 6 and went to check on it. By that point we had water back to the spigot at the base of the well, and the resivoir tank had filled back up but nothing beyond that. By 8 we had water back to the main cut off valve just before the piping goes underground and to the house. We also knew that we had no freeze under the house. Our problem was an elbow joint that we just could not get heat to. I made the crazy suggestion of using a Hot Hands under the elbow and another on top to try to thaw that area. Our other option was to try to find Heat Tape to place around that area. I started with the phone calls. By this time it was after 9 pm so my options were Walmart and Walmart. The Arden Walmart said yes they had heat tape, and risking the roads for water, I went.

The trip ended up being a bust, as Walmart does not carry Heat Tape, but I did find another heater we could use. I got home and my husband was to the point of giving up for the night. We had done all that we could do, including using the Hot Hands.

I had just gotten hot water from our water dispenser to take a make shift 'wash the most important parts' session, and crawled into bed, when we heard a strange sound of water running. At 12 am this morning all of our efforts had finally paid off and we had running water!!! We danced, we hugged, we high fived, and we thanked GOD. We had given up with a prayer that no real damage would be done to our pipes, and our prayer was answered.

Non-couponing notes

We have been bitten by the cold bug. My husband woke at 5 am this morning to discover that our pipes have frozen. I have had water running every night the temp was forcasted to be below freezing in hopes that this would not happen. It is a sinking feeling I can tell you.

You never really realize what you have until it is unavailable to you. I could be doing wash today (I cant leave the house because we have heaters both in the well house and under the house), oh yeah no water. The dishes need washing......oh yeah, a hot bath would feel really good right now............ah nope!

Lets hope that something we are doing will work before any real damage is done. On a brighter note, looks like we will be eating out, as it is hard to cook with no water available ;-)