12-08-13

What a great day!

A storm came through starting Friday afternoon and lasted until after mid night.
Behind the rain storm came a freeze. Of course everything was covered in ice Saturday morning.

We had planned to go to the cabin with Joanne and Dave on Saturday.
When Patti went out to her car to put some stuff in it for the trip, the doors were frozen shut. We had to wait until she sun got high enough to warm things up a bit. Around 8:15 the sun had warmed the drivers side door enough so that it would open. Patti went out and started the engine so the car would warm up inside and maybe release the other doors from the colds icy grip. By 8:30 things had thawed to the point where we could get all the doors open.

We loaded the little bit of stuff we were taking and headed for Joanne and Dave’s. The highway department had been busy this morning sanding the intersections and other icy spots on highway 101. It must have been pretty dangerous in the wee hours of the morning before the sand trucks got to work. We saw at least one smashed car being scraped up from the side of the highway as we drove north.
We got to J&D’s by 9:00 and after a few minutes we were back on the road heading north.

Highway 128 that goes to Boonville is very curvy and has long stretches that never see the sun at this time of year.

 

Fortunately the highway department is very aggressive about sanding the road so the drive was no problem.

We stopped at the Boonville Market to pick up some deli sandwiches to take to the cabin for lunch.

We were expecting to encounter down trees or other obstacles on the dirt road to the cabin but everything was just fine. The only tree that was down was near the cabin. The top of a fir tree had broken off and was lying on the side of the road. It was easy to go around so we left it to be cleaned up at another day.

As soon as we got to the cabin, around 10:45, I started a fire in the wood stove. The thermometer on the porch read 36 degrees.

You can’t really see the temp in this picture.

We sat around in the cabin for a while as it warmed up.

The next thing I wanted to do was to check out the spring tanks to see if there was any water coming out of the overflow.
Dave and I climbed the hill to the camp spring. It took me a while to make the climb as it is kind of steep and I had to stop a couple of times to rest on the way.
When we got to the tank we could see there was no water coming from the overflow.
Dave knocked on the side of the tank and said that it was almost full.
These springs usually pick up in the fall so I expected some over flow. The last time I checked the tanks there was a little water coming out. It was strange but there wasn’t anything we could do about it at this time.
We walked across the hill to the Cabin spring and noted that it was flowing about the same as it always does. That was good news.

A while later we found out why there was no water coming from the overflow on the camp spring.
Joanne went to use the toilette and called us down to see the water flowing out the door.

As it turned out I had forgotten to turn the water of to the “on demand” water heater for the shower. It had apparently frozen and burst the pipes in the heater. water was spraying in all directions. I turned of the water and Dave removed the heater to take it home and see if it can be fixed. I suspect it is toast but you never know.
That solved the mystery of why there was no water coming out of the tank overflow. As near as I can figure the water heater had been frozen until around the time we arrived and then had defrosted to where the water was spraying from the broken heat exchanger when Joanne went to use the toilette. Other wise the spring tank would have been empty. Joanne swept the water out of the wash house as best she could.

It will probably remain wet in there until the warm weather comes in the spring.
Now I have a project for the summer. A new hot water system for the wash house. I am thinking of maybe a 10 gallon propane tank water heater.

We walked around a little but spent a lot of the day just sitting around in the cabin enjoying the heat from the wood stove, visiting and eating our lunch.

By the time we left, at around 3:30, the reading on the thermometer had risen to 38 degrees.
A warming trend?

All in all It was a wonderful day in the woods I felt better up there than I have in a couple of weeks. The outing was just what I needed to improve my moral.
I’m a little achy today but it is worth it. 

I am looking forward to when I can go up there for a couple of days at a time.
Since we won’t be going down to Quartzsite until around the middle of February. I will need to go to the cabin often between now and then just to stay sane.