Cassi Creek: In an
apparent window which is to contain neither wind nor rain, resumed hike with
Mike.
We were
worried about damage to our water lines and filters during the record low
temperatures that occurred last week.
There has been no apparent damage that we know of to our water
supply. A combination of running the
water at a low velocity, heating the filter valves and lines with incandescent
bulbs controlled thermostatically, and the 18 inches of dirt and gravel that
insulate the inlet line to the house, seems to have provided sufficient
protection. We are about 0.1 mile and
$20,000 distant from the county water terminus.
The previous owner had a chance to hook into county water at a much
lower rate when water services in the valley were expanded. He chose not to take advantage of the
opportunity. We’ve grumbled about that
every time we’ve had to deal with problems in well maintenance and
replacement.
Today, I
discovered that at least four homes down valley (including Mike’s) had their
water lines freeze. Mike had to replace
a pressure reduction valve and clean up quite a lot of water. I don’t know how much damage the other homes
experienced. From what I’ve noticed,
there are many water lines not buried very deeply. Often, when the water line from the main county
source is directed from the home tap to the cross-creek user, the feed pipe is
not even buried or insulated. No wonder
the water lines froze and burst. Mike
has to bring his water over the creek to get it into his home. His water line is very well insulated. Even with that care and attention to detail, he
was inconvenienced and not very happy about the loss of evidence.
Today, we are
looking for a backup smoke detector that we received, as a replacement for on
that doesn’t work correctly. I’d like to
install it today but neither of us can recall where we misplaced it. We’ll just have to wait for it to show up.
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