I got to thinking early this morning about the last time we endured a serious deep-freeze while living in an RV. That was at the campground in Harrison, a little over a year ago, in our motorhome. In my mind I started cataloging the differences between that challenge and this one.
It was colder then — factoring-in wind chill, maybe 20°F to 30°F colder. (The low on The Mountain this morning was 2°F, with a “feels like” of -11°F.) The campsite may have been somewhat more sheltered than our current perch, but still we got a pretty direct blast from the wind.
That motorhome was insulated a lot better than this fifth-wheel is. The bus had two LP furnaces as opposed to one, a larger supply of propane that didn’t require manual switching or swapping, and an onboard 7,500W generator that could step in if we lost electric power. The motorhome had a tiny radiant heater in its wet bay, while this camper has a tank heater (which may or may not be working, but it’s turned on).
We supplemented two gas furnaces then with one electric space heater; now it’s two heaters and one furnace.
At the campground, we ran a heated fresh-water hose to the hydrant, which was fed by city water and kept warm by an electric heat wrap installed by our hosts. Here on The Mountain, fresh water comes from our well, drawn by a 220VAC pump, and is dispensed from a similar hydrant. From there it flows through 20 feet of ordinary hose to our heated hose and finally into the camper.
We’ve been responsible for equipping all vulnerable water lines with freeze-mitigating measures, as I’ve detailed here, from the well to the hydrant to the unheated hose.
The big difference is that now we own this — all of it, end-to-end. Succeed or fail, it’s on us.
But did we do it right? Did we miss something? Have we done enough?
I’ll let you know in a few days.
Certainly, we benefit from experience gained in December of ’22. We’re using now some of the equipment we used then — space heater in the living space, ceramic heater in the wet bay, heated hose — but more important, we’re applying the lessons we learned.
For example, I recall discovering on the first day of that “once in a generation” weather event that the fresh water had stopped flowing. The cause was one inch of brass hose coupling exposed to the wind — that’s all it took to freeze the line.
Every bit of the work I’ve done here has been informed by that lesson (and others). Heat and insulate. Leave nothing exposed. Do more than is apparently necessary — like putting an additional “blanket” over the speed bump yesterday afternoon.
Honestly, I’ll be on-edge ’til we come out the other side of this — not stressed, just in a state of hyper-consciousness of conditions and how well we’re doing. I can relax afterward, but not now.
Always thinking. Always contemplating scenarios, playing chess with the weather. Have to be.
Before I finished today’s second cup of coffee I’d come to a decision. I considered the impact on our situation, currently as well as once we’re in the cabin, if we lost electric power for any length of time. We’d fire up our 5,000W inverter generator, of course, to keep the camper (or cabin) running. That’d include powering what heats the fresh-water lines to the camper, though eventually only the hydrant will be part of the equation.
But here’s the thing — 200 feet away is the well, which also relies on 120VAC to protect it from freezing. Sure, we could drain the main (buried) water line and the pump, either preemptively (when weather like this is in the forecast) or in fire-drill fashion (reacting to an outage after it happens).
Ideally, though, we’d have a way to keep the freeze-prevention devices powered. That’d buy us time ’til electric returns or while we drain the lines.
A large-capacity power station (aka “solar generator”) could work, but I dismissed that option (for now) on account of its relatively high cost. A better solution for us, I decided, would be a second gasoline-powered inverter generator — a small one, something to get this job done, potentially with a little extra headroom that’d let us use it to run corded tools (and more) elsewhere on The Mountain.
After Deb came downstairs this morning and we took care of the dogs, I hopped in the truck and drove to Mountain Home. There I picked up another of Harbor Freight’s Predator inverter generators, the 2,000W model (1,600 running watts).
I had a coupon for 10% off. At Deb’s request, and also at a discount, I grabbed a few inexpensive moving pads for the dogs to sleep on.
The Predator 2000 will, I believe, become a very versatile tool in our homesteading arsenal. It’s much smaller than our Predator 5000 and weighs less than half as much, meaning that Deb can manage it by herself if need be. We reckon it’s a good investment, with a role both now and in the future.
Snow was just starting to fall while I had Smudge out around midday. The fine, icy flakes, reflecting the bitter temperature (5°F), were falling straight down. That signaled that winds essentially were calm — a welcome change after what we’ve been through this past week.
We got a good bit of The White Stuff this afternoon, but it was no Snowmageddon.
Forecasting this system has been tough — wind, rain, snow and temps have been real moving targets, frustrating meteorologists’ long-range projections. Original predictions of half a foot or more of accumulation won’t materialize. It’s just too cold.
Three more nights and two more days of this, and then we’ll get a two-day reprieve. We’ll have to stay on top of things a little while longer.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB
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