It was cool today, but at least the sun was shining. I heard rain during the night, but the clouds were gone this morning.
We've had the materials to freeze-proof the water standpipe at our site for a couple of weeks. I think the weather forecast finally convinced Forrest that we needed to get the task done. We bought the shortest heat tape we could find. It is three feet long, but the pipe is only about two and a half feet above the ground. The instructions are very explicit about not over-lapping heat tape. Forry dug down around the pipe far enough to be able to secure the tape straight down the pipe.
Then we wrapped 1/2 inch fiberglass insulation around the pipe and over the heat tape with a vapor barrier over that. Again the instructions were very clear about using no more than a half inch of insulation. Then we secured a couple sections of stove pipe around the whole thing; plugged in the heat tape; connected the heated water hose to the water standpipe; plugged it in; then put a five gallon bucket upside down over the whole apparatus to keep the rain out.
We didn't have to do any of that when we were in Arizona!
While we were out there messing around, we disconnected the sewer hose we had been using and connected a little short one. Less to freeze! Hopefully it's not going to get so cold that we'll have to worry about it.
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