Hey, that's not a mythtake!

[midnightsjane]

I love Mythbusters. Watch it regularly. Never thought I would see a segment that made me go all "dude! totally not a myth, I've seen it myself!" Tonight they were checking out a Youtube video showing someone loading a big excavator-backhoe onto a truck without a ramp, by using the excavator's bucket as a balance arm.(see it here) The Mythbusters were all agog about it and blown away when Adam was able to do it..but I saw a guy do this not once, but four times! Martin, the fellow who came to the farm to bury our mare Phaedra, and again when Kismet died, has a big excavator, and he unloaded and loaded it onto his truck just the way the Mythbusters did. It was totally cool to see; takes a real master of his machinery to do something like this.

In other news, I spent two hours in line to get my snow tires put on today. I was determined not to repeat my mistake of last year, when I waited until the first snowfall. I had to wait for over 6 hours and then paid almost twice what my regular tire shop charges. So this morning I got going and was at OK Tires before noon. There was already a 6 car lineup, going out onto the street; they were pretty organized and had us all listed in order. A couple of people tried to jump the queue, but were quickly put in their place...at the back of the line. heh. I took a book to read, got a coffee from Terra Breads, and just enjoyed the down time. So now I'm set, which is good because it's cold enough tonight that the rain might just turn to snow before morning.

I did laundry, made potato and leek soup, and Mac and Cheese for tomorrow. We'll be happy to have something hot and nourishing after a day of cleaning stalls, I'm sure. Right now I'm happy to be home, snug and warm and about to watch Bones on TV.

Comments

[ranunculus]

We drained the water lines at the Ranch today in preparation for a night that has 27F and 34F assigned to it, depending on which news feed you watch.

[midnightsjane]

It's good to be prepared. We are big fans of the Weather Network here. This time of year we're watching the temperature at night, because all it takes is one really freezing night and there's a waterpipe disaster in the making.
Usually we have a couple of weeks of very cold weather, and we keep a hose running out into the field so the water pipes in the barn don't freeze. We usually end up having to bucket water to the stalls from the wash stall in the middle of the barn, but at least we have water.

[ranunculus]

It freezes occasionally in the winter at the Ranch. When I re-did the pastures I put in PVC stand pipes with shutoff valves on each upright. We have found that any water left ABOVE the valve will freeze, breaking the top and shattering the valve. So we have this complicated procedure of draining everything, opening the top of each pipe, emptying the top into the drained pipe below and closing it up again. Tedious with 14 valves, but it works!

I have to design the water system for the Red Barn next, and decide how to provide shutoffs. There has to be a more efficient way!!!

[midnightsjane]

It's a pain to have to bleed all the pipes, but the alternative is even worse. We're putting in a sprinkler system in the arena, so we have to remember to bleed all those lines. When it's really freezing, the main line in the barn will keep running, but the lines down to the buckets freeze up nice and solid. We've considered putting heat tape around them, but we're too worried about the risk of fire.

[ranunculus]

I can't tell you how happy I am to live in a climate where we don't need to bring the horses in because it will freeze solid outside. The lowest I can remember it ever getting was about 19F, but normally it never gets below about 27F. That is cold, but not cold enough to freeze pipes indoors.

My biggest problem was not putting in enough valves so I could turn off unused pastures. Originally I had one shutoff valve for the whole setup.. At the house I put in a lovely drain pipe that really is the lowest pipe in the system. Works like a dream.