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All day yesterday we had blowing winds, swirling snow, and thick, heavy cloud cover. I was internet-less. However! I had power. And water! The new kitchen plumbing worked like a charm, and the new well tank stayed cozy and warm with the heat tape and insulation blanket. I took a tip from the comments from the other day and stacked a bale of hay under the door to the little room where the well tank is tucked in the barn. There’s a huge gap under that door that can let cold air blow right in at the well tank. The tip was actually to use a bale of straw, and next time I’m in town to the little store, I’ll get a couple, but I don’t have any right now so I settled for a bale of hay. Which the sheep will eat so will have to be regularly replaced, but I set it there before bedtime so they wouldn’t get it eaten down overnight and the tank would at least be protected in last night’s low temps. I’m thinking of just bringing a couple bales right into that room and tucking them directly around the tank, but that room is pretty small and I’m afraid I may not be able to get in there to get tools if needed if I do that. At the very least, I may just wait to do that until I can get some straw–it will be a few days before I go out. The roads are covered.
But I’m back! For the moment….. It’s really winter now, so you never know!
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on January 14, 2012
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Love the photo of the sheep looking out the door. You know its bad when they even do not want to be outside in the weather. lol.
Keep warm, enjoy your time being snowed in.
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At least all the water works and heat so you are good to go. Anywhere you live it’s a constant tweaking or fixing of something or other. Goats are smart animals.You wouldn’t catch me out either. I had wondered about yesterday and had been checking to see if you had posted. Glad you are back.
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Please be careful not to put hay or straw on any electric, we DON’T want a barn fire, especially after waiting for so long to get one.
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Almost Heaven, the downspout doesn’t go back into the barn. There is an opening at the bottom that drains outside the barn.
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Keep warm! We missed you!
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If you have electrical things that have to be where an animal might possibly get to them, and it’s a permanent installation like the pump or even the heat tape, may I suggest what we did? We used old hose with a slit cut in it to fit around the cord, zip tied it closed every few inches, and then used flexible metal strapping to screw it to the wall. I don’t know the exact name but I’ve seen the strapping used on conduit and pipes to hold them to a wall.
I also learned the hard way to check cords regularly for damage and to make sure that cords had a “drip loop” in them, basically that part of the cord dips several inches below both the outlet and whatever the cord runs, because condensation may build up and run right down the cord. We used to get condensation once the pipes and pump were all buttoned up and cozy for the winter and then a warm damp day would show up and everything would get wet, although it was always damp around the well cistern especially once we put an insulated “pump house” on it. We had to have it, the plumbing was under a concrete slab and we had no access to it that didn’t involve a jackhammer so we needed it to prevent everything from freezing, but it needed watching because it was a mouse magnet. Insulation + warm + water + feed and hay nearby = rodent explosion. We did make sure that there was a pop hole cut for the cats to get in there but the only one who took advantage of that was the mouse eating hen.
Anyway, it’s something to watch for and pretty easy to prevent. I used to keep an eye on a particular barn window that was near the electrical and water stuff, I knew if the window had condensation on it that the cords would be dripping fairly soon after.
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