Rising to the Challenge of Winter.

It is extremely cold here today. When I got up this morning, it was 10 degrees above 0, and we had no water except for the cold faucet in the kitchen. The hot faucet in the bathroom was set to drip all night, but the hot water froze anyway.

This is the second time this winter we've lost water. We had hoped that the increased insulation put into the house when the kitchen window was replaced would have eliminated this problem, but it didn't. We have worked things out over the years that we've been here that it is only a minor annoyance, but it is an annoyance, nonetheless.

I think there is only one house that I have ever lived in where the water didn't freeze during the winter, and that was in Chillicothe, Ohio. But that was during a period of mild winters -- and we weren't there long.

Even one very bad winter in Florida, the housing on our well got so cold, it split, and the submerged pump sent water spewing into the air, where it froze. It was a beautiful sight -- but it cost us a mint to have it fixed!

I guess the moral is, wherever you are there are challenges.