It was so cold a couple of weeks ago, that the water pipes in my basement froze. You can imagine how difficult it is to take care of 30 critters when no water comes out of the pump in the barn. Fortunately, I had a few gallons of emergency water in jugs, and was able to carry them out to the barn so everyone had drinking water. I called 3 different well servicers for repairs, but all were busy on other calls (other people with frozen pipes). Finally, the wife of the owner of one of the well companies had a good suggestion for me. She told me to climb up on a step ladder and feel along the pipes until I could find the frozen spot. Then, use my hair blow dryer to heat it up for a few minutes to thaw it out. I couldn’t imagine that this would work (sounded way too easy!!), but I was willing to try anything at this point. So I followed her instructions, found a frozen spot, heated it with my blow dryer, and it worked! Boy, was I ever pleased to see water flowing out of my faucet.

I have now put insulation behind the pipes along the basement wall where it froze, to avoid any future problems. Live and learn!

I have always found duct tape to be great for minor repairs around the farm. Now my toolkit for farm repairs includes duct tape and a blow dryer!