Blargh.

[ellenmillion]

Jake rolls over at 3:30 this morning and asks: "Did I empty the water out of the truck last night?"

Me*: "Um... I don't remember you doing that."

SO, we scramble out of bed, because it's zero, and leaving 150 gallons in the tank in the trunk means we have to thaw the truck out in a heated garage (which we do not have) for a day or two.

There's a good 1/2" of ice at the top of the tank, and while the valve swizzles, there's no water coming out - the nozzle to the valve is clearly frozen. After a few minutes with a hair dryer, Jake get the idea to break the ice with a screwdriver through the open valve. Works like a charm, though there is pretty clearly still a partial ice block because draining the tank is sllloooooowwwwww. We put an electric space heater pointing at the nozzle and build it a little leftover insulation fort. It takes about 40 minutes to get the water out, and at the very end, there's an ice breakthrough, and it come gushing out of the tank. I roll up the blue tube, unplug the heater and crawl into bed. (Jake has a test today - when we saw how slow the tank was draining, I sent him to bed earlier.)

Exhausted today. Somehow got talked into working this morning. Better shower and get going...

ETA: I can also add a vole to this year's 'seen' list - there was one that ran across the driveway and into a bank of snow (where he was very vole-like and dove in as far as his momentum would take him and then froze with his little vole butt sticking out to try to avoid the big fierce predator of my Subaru...).

*Groggy as hell and still in the aftermath of a dream of being in a dance competition that was half ice-skating and half ballroom dancing and involved socks on a waxed wooden floor. Better than Jake's dreams - he was dreaming about giant plastic blue statistical symbols.

Comments

[rendergirl.livejournal.com]

The coldest I've ever experienced is like 19 degrees. I can't even imagine zero, let alone going out in the middle of the night into that kind of temp.
Oh.. and what's a vole??

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Red-backed_Vole

And more general vole info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-backed_vole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vole

(Except the descriptions say 'slender,' and our voles are pretty round and roly poly.)

[natsunekko.livejournal.com]

Why was there 150 gallons of water in your truck bed?

I always love hearing about your life in Alaska. I really admire people who have the guts and skills to make thier own homes!!

My husband used to be sent TDY to Alaska for several months every year to test the Strykers. He'd come back with all these great stories about interesting people and critters he met, it all really made me want to move up there. I love the cold!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

We have a water tank in our basement (2500 gallons) and a smaller on in the truck (150 gallons). Every day or so, Jake stops at the Water Wagon, which is just exactly like a gas station, except that it accepts cash and dispenses drinking water in HUGE nozzles. It's cheaper this way than paying a big truck to deliver water to us. (Mostly because it's directly on the way home for him.) Ideally, he comes home and empties the water into the big tank. Letting it freeze is bad.

I'm glad you're enjoying these stories. :P It was more fun writing about it this morning than it was at 3:30 dealing with it....

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yes, I love reading about your stories. It makes Minnesota seem like a hot vacation spot. I do know what Zero feels like, but it usually doesn't get that cold here until sometime in January. My stepdaughter is talking about taking a year off after college and going to Alaska. I'm not sure what she thinks she'll do when she gets there, but she's had experience working with trees, and she hunts and fishes too.

[wyrdpainter.livejournal.com]

Oh it's me here yammering about my stepdaughter. (((waves)))