Have you ever tried to keep a horse watered during a freezing cold winter? It's an issue.
It's a blasted pain.
The water freezes in the pipes, in the hose, in the bucket. The pipes... well, there's not much you can do once they're already frozen. The hose needs to be drained after every use. The ice in the bucket needs to be broken with a shovel. All of this while you're trying not to freeze yourself.
Fortunately, we have a water heater that just sits right inside the water trough, which has helped a lot during this winter- no breaking ice for me!
But that still leaves the issue of the pipes and hose freezing.
We finally decided to keep the hose in the basement, which is gross anyway, and that way it will stay thawed and pliable. It now lives in a big yellow tub downstairs. And, guess what, we also have water faucets down there! Do you see where this is going?
It only took us two months to figure out an effective way to water the horse. Yesterday was the trial run. Let me take you through it, step by step:
1. Start in the laundry room. Put on coat and muck boots.
2. Exit the house through the laundry room and walk around to the kitchen (because I'm not tromping through my pretty house in gross muck boots!).
3. Enter the kitchen and, from there, go down to the basement.
4. Thread the hose through the basement window.
5. Go back outside via the kitchen.
6. String the hose across the yard to the water trough.
7. Go back down to the basement via the kitchen.
8. Turn on the water.
9. Go back outside via the kitchen.
10. Stand and hold the hose to ensure the water makes it into the trough.
11. Wait.
12. Wait some more.
13. Try not to freeze while you're waiting. (It's a big trough.)
14. When the trough is full, run back down to the basement via the kitchen.
15. Turn off the water.
16. Pull the hose back through the window and coil it back into its bucket.
17. Close the stubborn window.
18. Exit the house via the kitchen.
19. Go back around the house to the laundry room.
20. Enter the laundry room, take off coat and shoes, and gloat, because doing all that was far easier than draining the blasted hose.
Springtime? Please?
3 comments:
Okay, this sounds like a huge project for a pregnant gal...I think it should count for your daily exercise. You will be so fit by deliver time that you'll get Baby out with one push! Really, though, I do think it's impressive. I remember being a teenager in Utah and having to break ice out of our dog's bowl in the winter. I thought that was a hassle, and I didn't even need a hose! And to think I've been complaining about our cold spell this week...high of 49 today! I just love that the cold spell only lasts 3-5 days and then our highs will be back to about 70. I do not miss "real" winters!
I hear ya Chels. We just got some of these passive solar troughs at work, and they are great: http://www.ranchtanks.com/
unscrew the hose from the faucet and run it downhill until all the water runs out. then it will not be a frozen problem and you will not have to take it indoors every time.
Try insulating your pipe at the trough. It won't help with all the coldest days but it might make a small difference many days.
WV: rexiffa
I don't quite know why but this reminds me of Pippi Longstocking.
Or maybe it's a female bloodhound. No, that would be RexSniffa.
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