Listen to your Mother!

One night while we were in Tennessee Kevan's mom called and told us that cold weather was moving in.  It would be getting down to 9 degrees overnight.  She instructed us to open our cabinet doors and to turn our faucets on a light drip or the pipes might freeze overnight.  We thought that she was just worrying and that we would be just fine, but decided we would at least open the cabinet doors before we went to bed.  But, we went to bed and forgot about the cabinet doors.  Oops.

So, I woke up the next morning (the house was about 46 degrees) and grabbed my tea kettle.  I poured out the water from the day before (I always do this...I feel that the water is dirty because it sat in the kettle for the last 24 hours...I know, I need help).  Then, I turned on the faucet.  NOTHING came out.  I was devastated that I had just poured all of our storage of water down the drain and we could not have our morning oatmeal.  What was I thinking?  From now on....I will test the water faucet before I pour the water down the drain!

First thought that came into my head.....we should've listened to my mother-in-law!  I'm sorry Judy.  I admit.  You.were.right.   I couldn't have oatmeal, I couldn't take a shower, I couldn't brush my teeth, I couldn't flush the toilets!!  You get the picture.


Kevan and I had to work all day so we went through the day trying to adjust to not having water.  I have to say, I would rather struggle with heating issues than to not have water.  I'm so glad God gave us water.  Next year, we will plan better and have emergency water on hand.

Earlier in the day Kevan decided to check out the crawl space just to see if he could tell what was going on.  Do you see the little tiny window near the ground with the wood/bricks sitting up against it?  Yes, my husband crawled through that.  I could never do it.  I'm so happy God gave us husbands for things like this!  Sorry for the ugly house pic, but this was right after the auction pre-clean-up and pre-pressure washing.

Kevan didn't find much out by going in the crawl space.  My brother David called us that afternoon because he had heard that we didn't have water.  He talked to Kevan for awhile and gave him some ideas.  We didn't know if the water issues were due to frozen pipes, the well house being frozen, or what other issue could be causing it.  But, Kevan and David decided to make sure it wasn't the well pump first.


Since we didn't have water Kevan would bring me a pot full of snow and I would melt it on the stove.  If you aren't familiar with melting snow to make water...this much snow:




Makes this little tiny bit of DIRTY water!



Kevan wrapped the well pump with towels and once we had boiling water from the melted snow Kevan would take it and pour it on the well pump and then pour some on the pipes surrounding the well pump.  Here is a pic of our well house.




We did this over and over and over and over and over and over. Remember how much water we got from one pot of snow....we did it over and over. Then, miraculously the faucet in the kitchen started dripping water! So, we did it over and over again and eventually we had water again.


Then, I went right to the bathroom and took a bath in this.....and I loved every minute of it.  I love water.  Indoor plumbing was the BEST invention followed by 2 person jacuzzi tubs.  ;o)