Frozen Pipe

Well, this morning was interesting. When my husband went to run the kitchen faucet early (before I got up) he realized the water supply was frozen - somewhere!

While still in bed I heard him going out and back in the side door several times. I then got up to learn that the pipe coming out of the holding storage tank at the bottom, in the outside shed, had frozen during the night. We knew it was going to be cold but not THAT cold! Well, it was -10° at 7:30 AM so we don't know how cold it was between 10 PM and morning. What to do? He determined that the heat tape on the pipes was still working but that the pipe at the bottom of the tank was frozen at its connection. Usually we trickle water in the kitchen sink so this wouldn't happen! USUALLY. We didn't. I got out the hair drier, and the little one-and-only ceramic heater and he set them going. He had to rip the insulation off of the entire bottom pipe and it took two hours before we had water again. Luckily nothing major broke or was permanently damaged (We hope!) and we're back in business again. By the way, around 10 years ago we gave our salamander heater to our son-in-law for his garage work. It would have been a big hassle to get it back but it was a "last resort" plan. Now he has gone to town for more foam pipe insulation to replace what he destroyed. The ceramic heater cord was smashed in the shed door and that will have to be repaired and the kitchen heavy duty utility scissors were broken - no big deal! Whew! Now I can use the "facility" and have a certain flush!

He's been fussing about having nothing to do!

P.S. I took the thermometer photo around 8:30 AM. It's still -7° and the sun is shining. The next time he opened the shed, I got a photo of the its interior which better explains what all it contains and what was involved!