Converse in the North Cascades: Calf Shed and Freezing Pipes

Our internet has been out so I have not been able to do any posts for the last week or so. Sacha put a trouble call in on Monday, Tuesday was a holiday (Veteran’s Day) and the power went out on Wednesday.

There was a windy spell Tuesday night that the whole region experienced. We got it too. There is a background hum of appliances that one gets used to and it is noticeable when this hum abruptly stops and the computer backup battery starts beeping. I remember hearing the power go off at about 3:00 a.m.

The power going out during a cold snap was a concern to me because when the weather is well below freezing, we need to run a heater in the pump house to keep the pipes from freezing.

S…t!, I remembered, just as I woke up, that I had forgotten to turn on the heater and the cold snap had been going for a day or two at that point. The heater we use is an electric space heater so that was out as an option. I hoped at that point that a couple more hours wouldn’t hurt anything and I could deal with it after I got up at my usual time which is about 5:00 a.m. I slept fitfully until then.

I got up promptly when the alarm went off. The house was getting cold because the pellet stove that heats it needs electricity to operate. I prefer a regular old wood stove because you don’t need power to stay warm. However, we live in a rented place and a pellet stove is what was available at the time. We do have a generator but I got busy with other things and it wasn’t ready to operate, a big no-no in these parts where we lose power frequently. Fortunately, Sacha was at her mom’s with the kids so keeping them warm wasn’t an issue.

I would have to figure out some way to heat the pump house and hope the main house didn’t get cold enough for the pipes to freeze. I finally got a big candle and put it in the pump house near the tanks and piping. I draped several old blankets over the tanks, taking care to secure them so they wouldn’t slip into the candle, catch fire and burn the pump house down.

So I got that taken care of but I wasn’t done yet. I still needed to get some heat into the pump house at mom’s and get to work on time. Mom’s house is on the way to work and I usually stop in on the way.

Years ago I built a small house of hard foam insulation around the pump and pressure tank at mom’s. We keep a trouble light with a 60 to 100 watt bulb on inside the foam house to keep the pipes from freezing. Of course, with the power out, this light wasn’t working. We have a Coleman lantern for just such occasions. I was able to locate it but it was nearly empty. There was an almost full can of fuel but I couldn’t find a funnel. I poured it into the lantern as best I could, spilling quite a bit in the wind and dark.

Fortunately it lit up without much trouble. I put it in the foam pump house and headed for work. In the past we have used long lasting emergency candles when the power was out during a cold snap. We will have to come up with some other solution to heat the pump house when incandescent light bulbs are no longer available. There are also other systems that don't require all the measures to keep the pipes warm. I might look into some of those some day.

It is quite amazing how little heat is required to keep your pipes from freezing. Another trick to keep pipes from freezing in cold weather is to leave a faucet open to just a trickle. The water will keep flowing enough to prevent it from freezing. Obviously this won’t work if the power is out and you need electricity to run your pump.

When Sacha called Thursday, our internet provider said that, indeed there was a trouble call ticket for us but their records showed that there was a power outage so they cancelled the lost internet trouble call ticket. Huh? Sacha renewed the trouble call. It sounds like a wider area than just us was affected.

All of this is not an uncommon thing. Losing power and/or internet is part and parcel of living out here. A problem of living in a rural area is that there is not enough demand to get top of the line services here and it is quite easy to get behind the technology curve. A few years ago when my mom was still on dial-up, Microsoft put out a patch that could only be downloaded from the internet. The patch was so big that it took too long to download and the internet connection timed out every time before the patch could be completely downloaded.

Our internet is certainly adequate and, I am sure, much better than other places. I understand some people are still on dial-up but it is also definitely not top of the line. We got it back today, the 18^th, over a week later. Good thing I grew up without the need to be online all the time.

In between a birthday party and a trip Down Below, I worked on the calf shed on the weekends and on Veteran’s Day. Before the cows start calving I need to get it to the point where I can put a cow and new calf in it and button it up against the weather. I made good progress and hope to finish it over the Thanksgiving weekend. Fortunately, you don’t need the internet to do this kind of work.

I had added 1/2 inch plywood sheets on the back of the shed the previous weekend. This weekend I was able to get the sides on.

I left a gap about chest high so I can check on the cow and calf and get water and feed into the shed without opening the main doors. I made little doors out of plywood to cover the gaps.

I had intended to make the main doors out of 1x4's or 1x6's but I discovered a bunch of narrow strips of 1/4 inch plywood and decided to use that instead. It will be lighter but also much more flimsy. I used 1x4's to fasten it together and brace it and am hoping it will be enough to withstand bovine attentions. Time will tell. I might regret this decision, cows are powerful animals.