FAQ's for the frozen tundra

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R

RockCastile

Member
Nov 9, 2015
86
Blue Ridge of Va.
Merry Christmas all.

Many of us mid-latitude folks are now entering day 3 of temps loitering around zero F, and budging upward hardly at all during the days. We might not be setting new records on the thermometer but this particular duration of severe cold I can't remember in my 46 years. W/r/t cold endurance, every weak point of every property here is revealing itself. As heard on local FB chatter, many pipes that didn't freeze day 1-2 are now freezing day 3, heating oil seems to be gelling up in people's tanks, well pumps seem to be un-priming themselves/acting up, the list is long.

So for giggles, ye of the far frozen north who refer to this situation as "winter," tell of your travails at winterizing your stuff.
--Is it even 100% doable, or do you continuously discover new weak points (new frozen spots, new mechanical failures) that need attention?
--Your poor vehicles, how do they last beyond 50k miles? Or anything mechanical for that matter? How does literally anything work at -20F and below? The power grid, municipal water systems, human bodies?
--Are there always a few neighbors around who aren't as handy as you who are forever needing help with the pipes and etc? Or does natural selection take care of it?
 
Everything seems to go wrong in the worst situations. Had to chain up to pull the wife out of a drift yesterday. Chain broke loose and took out my ABS sensor. Luckily the old Toyota tundra had never failed to start in any whether. The BB Chevy truck on the other hand struggles. When I worked at the mill -10 was the point where we did not shut off any exterior machinery. At -20 we left all the front end loaders and forklifts running 24/7.
 
rwhite said:
When I worked at the mill -10 was the point where we did not shut off any exterior machinery. At -20 we left all the front end loaders and forklifts running 24/7.
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Makes sense. That's another thing I'm hearing locally, guys arent even bothering trying to get heavy diesel equipment cranked right now if they don't absolutely have to.
 
Yesterday, Christmas eve morning my mom called. She still lives in the home her and my dad built 42 years ago. She could hear water running but couldn't figure out where. I went over and found that the outside 'frost proof' spigot was apparently only good for 41 years! It had frozen and water was running pretty much wide open. Had been for a couple of hours, not sure how long. Ugg.
Got the water turned off. Later in the day my brother in law got some big straw bales on the ground up against the house to keep the ground from freezing. The ground is saturated on that side of the house. I don't want it to freeze and bow the basement walls. I hope that works out and gets us to spring.
Generally places are build to handle the zero degree weather here, but sometimes stuff still happens in the cold and you have to roll with it.
 
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