Earlier I had mentioned all the snow in my driveway. Add to that...
The next morning I went to my well to turn the water back on. Hmmm... the light bulb I had left on for heat was burned out. The space heater I use as back up was on but not running. The temperature in the shed was above freezing but the floor of the pump shed was covered with a combination of water and ice. This doesn't look good.
I turned the water valve on to no effect. No water.
The water pressure gauge was at 58-60 lbs of water pressure. I thought my pump was set to have 52-54 lbs as the maximum water pressure. Also, when I left, before I turned the water valve off, I made sure to run water until the water pressure was 46-48 lbs as I didn't want maximum water pressure in case something froze. Why was the pressure gauge showing 58-60 lbs?
In July of 2010 I had gotten a new water tank. Kyle, my well guy, had also rewired the pump's switch to move it from next to the pump to over on the wall by my electrical outlet. It would much easier to access than near the pump at the back of my pump shed.
Here is what it used to look like. The red and white wires are the electrical wires attached to the pump switch. The pressure gauge is 'whited out' by the camera's flash. Behind the pump is not where I usually place the space heater - when I use the heater I place it by the pipes in the lower left of the photo.
Unfortunately when Kyle moved and re-wired the switch he accidentally changed it so that when the switch was turned off the electrical outlet was also turned off. That meant I had to leave the pump switch to the "on" position when I left in December so that the light and electric space heater would have electricity to run. I did not discover Kyle's side effect until I left to catch the train and went to turn the pump switch off.
So...
- water on the floor of the pump shed,
- no water in the house when I opened the faucet,
- the water tank felt empty when I rocked it,
- a burnt out light bulb,
- a space heater that has not been proven to keep the shed warm when the temperature got real cold,
- a pressure gauge reading higher than I had ever seen, and
- a pump switch that had been left in the on position
Something similar had happened the Spring I came to take dad out of the nursing home. Not knowing how things worked I only turned the water valve off when I left the previous Fall - I didn't know about the pump switch. When I returned a glass jet on the pump had sprung a leak and was spraying water inside the shed. I didn't know when the leak occurred but fortunately the pump itself was not damaged back then.
Now? I called Kyle. I found out he was out of state and wouldn't return until March. With the economy so bad in the Flathead Valley he left the state for a while to make money as there is no work here. Oh, great.
Kyle made some calls and he found me another well repair person: Mark. Unfortunately Mark couldn't get to me until the next morning. No one else was available so I had to wait. Fortunately I still had water left in jugs that I had filled for use on my plants when I was gone.
Saturday morning Mark showed up. He checked the pump and it was fine. He opened the water valve and this time the water ran.
What?!
My guess is that the water line was frozen Friday when I opened the valve. The temperature stayed in the 30s F Friday and through the night to Saturday morning and the pipe had thawed. No ice and only a little water was left on the pump house floor even though I had removed the space heater Friday.
Why was the pressure gauge at 58-60 lbs? Kyle had upped the maximum pressure when he replaced the tank last July.
I never had water on the pump house floor before so.. where did the water come from? Who knows! It's a mystery.
Why did the water line freeze even though I had a space heater in the pump house? I have found that the space heater in a small space crowded with objects is not ideal. The heater will warm the area around the heater but with little air movement the heat doesn't get distributed evenly all around the inside of the pump house. At warmer temperatures this is not noticeable or a concern. When the temperature plunges to minus 25 degrees F apparently the heater can't keep up on the temperature setting that is appropriate for above zero temperatures. The heater kept the pipes by the tank warm enough but the pipe going into the pump house ground froze.
All the winters I have been here the temperature has only gotten to a low of minus 16 or 18 degrees. When I am gone it has gotten to minus 25 this year and one year years ago it got down to minus 32 F. That year I had frozen pipes in the well and the house as neither place was insulated well. I did a major insulating job on both places after that and now the pump house will stay above freezing inside just on the heat of the pump running occasionally and the heat from the well water when the outside temperature is down to 10 above F. I have kept the pump house warm with just a light bulb's heat down to minus 10 to minus 12 F.
Why did the light bulb burn out? After all I put in a new bulb shortly before I left. Either it was a cheap or defective bulb, or the power surge when I was gone that ruined my neighbor's stereo receiver also blew my light bulb.
So... it could have been worse. My pipes could have been split, the tank ruined and the pump burned out. So an $85 charge for nothing may not be so bad after all.
When testing the pump to make sure it cycled correctly I opened the sink faucets in the house to let the water run for about 10 minutes. Later than afternoon when I turned the kitchen sink faucet on to wash something I heard water running under the sink. I looked and found that the drain's trap had corroded and most of the water running out onto the cupboard floor.
What?!
The cupboard floor and house floor under the cupboard were soaked. After fixing the pipe I checked the crawlspace to see what the water had damaged. Year ago when insulating the house I had placed insulation under the house floor and now I was concerned the water ruined the insulation. I found I had not packed the insulation around the pipes themselves so as to allow the air a chance to keep the pipes from freezing. The pipes were so close to the house's outer wall that insulation can both help and hurt when it comes to cold. So the insulation was ok.
In fact I saw no signs of water in the crawl space. Where did the ten minutes of running water that morning go? It's a mystery.
I had to replace most of the pipes under the sink as when I tried to unscrew the trap another corroded pipe crumpled and broke.
*sigh*
The good news was all the other pipes are ok. I was concerned as I have doubts as to how my gas furnace worked when I was gone. The night I arrived home I had left the house door open until I got all my bags inside the house. By the time I was done the furnace kicked on. I thought: "Good. The furnace is working." I couldn't tell the temperature inside the house. All my exercise in moving my luggage had kept me warm. It felt cold inside the house, but not freezing. I had left the thermostat at 52-53 degrees when I was gone so I expected cool. The batteries had died (of course) on my digital thermometer so I couldn't tell what the temperature was inside the house.
I went to bed right away as I was tired. I slept for a solid 12 hours other than getting up briefly during the night to get another blanket as I was cold. In the morning after I found fresh batteries I discovered the temperature was 43 degrees.
43?! What happened to 53? And an inside 43 degree temperature was with an outside temperature of near 40 F.
I don't know. It's a mystery.
Once I got my mail I checked my utility bills. I had hardly used any natural gas. Much less gas than last year when I was gone for a shorter amount of time. My electrical usage was higher. Originally the house was only heated with electric baseboard heaters, even though I don't use them as they are inefficient and not good at keeping the house warm. I have found that several of them can only be turned down but never completely off. My suspicion was that between the natural gas pilot light, the several baseboard heaters, and how well I had insulated the house they all kept the house from freezing when I was gone. Or if the house got below freezing during the minus 25 degrees nothing froze and broke.
Speaking of other strange things... when came home I found several large dark brown spots on the floor below my oven's door. The spots must have come from the oven door - but how and why? This has never happened before. It's a mystery.
My old refrigerator which normally makes all sorts of strange noises is now quiet. It does run and is working well but no more chirping, squeaking, popping or other noises. Why the change? It's a mystery.
Even though I had my mail forwarded and stopped later, to my surprise I found a number of letters and other mail items in my mailbox. They look to be from the week before Christmas. Why? It's a mystery.
Once I finally unpacked later in the weekend I found that two of the three glass baking dishes of mom's that I had brought from North Dakota were shattered in pieces. Even though I had wrapped them in clothes and packed them well they got broken somehow. Why? It's a mystery.
No mice moved into the house when I was gone (even though I saw a large fat gray mouse outside the door the day after I got back), but I wonder if any ghosts did?
I heard that Saturday a freight train locomotive had come off the tracks near Glacier Park closing the train tracks that day. So if I had tried to take the Amtrak train Saturday to come home to a well that was now thawed, that would not have worked. Add in recent craziness on the train... Monday the Amtrak train was halted between East Glacier and Browning Montana after a Minnesota man, Hussein Hassan, who had been kicked off the train for being unruly, made a bomb threat that made Amtrak halt the train and evacuate everyone while they searched the train for 8 hours. The train passengers had to sleep in the Browning school overnight before resuming their journey the next morning arriving in Whitefish 11 hours late. I am happy I wasn't on that train.
Had I mentioned that the main suspect in the killing of the four people in Minot a few weeks ago is a guy from Minnesota?
Those Minnesotans!
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