Yep......that Jack came to our farm again. He sneaks into our lower fields in the late of the night.....just to break our water pipes. He keeps doing this year after year. The latest count is eleven broken faucets and pipes out there.
Jack Frost.....I will catch you!
Winter has not left us yet. In fact....we are only in the middle of the mean season. Here at the farm.....it gets mush colder than the rest of Sacramento County. It's either four degree colder or in the summer...hotter. I counted 23 straight nights of 33 degrees or lower this past month. The wood burning house stove has been in use non stop for 27 days now.
Running around to let the water pipes drip all night is a hassle.....at night..... right before bedtime. Wrapping then up seems to have little effect of the chosen few pipes. Two of my neighbors had mega breaks too.....and their pipe is steel! In all of this....the light bulb finally turned on inside Farmer Deno's head.............
After five years of dealing with these freeze issues......(!!!) .....I got the big picture finally. The water pump supplies the fields and the house. I simple separated the outlet pipe to: one pipe to the house....the other to the fields. Added a valve real close to our house so it's access is easy at night.
Next....I located several of the low points here on the farm.....where the underground water pipes run. At those low points...I installed a valve with a timer.
Now.....on the nights of the freezes....I simply turn off the valve leading to the fields.....and those timers that I installed.....will turn on later (in the late of night) for about 2 minutes.....draining the entire system of water from the pipes. Nothing to freeze :-)
Jack will be very disappointed when he comes back.........
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