I’m not complaining about winter . . let’s get that straight. For me, winter is a time to sit inside, look out and think how beautiful it is. Spring is good and it’s pretty with the flowers but it’s hard for me to love spring because I know summer is coming next. I like fall but I love winter . . until I have to go out in it.
As I’ve mentioned before, I watch the weather and plan my grocery order pickups around the weather. It was a week ago today that I picked up groceries so I’d probably do it again next Wednesday but I’m betting everyone has stayed in this week and will be shopping next week and the stores may be out of a lot of stuff so I’ll probably wait til Friday to pick up groceries . . a week from this Friday. Groceries are all I have to go out for . . so long as neither critter gets sick and I have to make a trip to the vet.
This past week’s weather has been a bit unusual for this area – not unheard of but not a normal winter. When Vince was here in December, he was going to Home Depot and I asked him if he would get some faucet covers for the faucets and he said we have the freeze proof faucets so we don’t need them. OK. But, he wasn’t thinking of the temps staying in the teens during the day and near zero at night for over a week. They still may be ok but I ordered faucet covers from Amazon and they arrived today.
I was going to take a nap because I was too hot to sleep most of the night light night. I was just about ready to fall asleep, had the bedroom window open and thought I heard the mail lady. I looked out the window and yes .. it was the mail lady so I opened the front door as she was getting out of her vehicle to bring the box up to the house. I told her she could just leave on the ground by the mail box . . I was going to put my boots on and go get it.
I called Vince so he would be on the phone with me if I fell or froze so I grabbed a knife to open the box, put on my big coat, filled a jar with kitty litter on my way out of the garage, sprinkled it ahead of me for the few steps I had to make across the driveway to get to the side of the house where Faucet #1 is located.
I had never put one of those things on. I had tightened them up once they were on so I didn’t even know how to do it. Vince told me the little round thing had to go over the handle. We have round metal handles and they’re kind of big so no amount of pulling and tugging would get that little circle over the handle .. plus it was 15 degrees, the rubber was cold and not very stretchy and I didn’t have on gloves and my hands were starting to seriously ache. Vince told me to go inside, get electric ties, put them through the handle, and then through the circle and that would work.
I went inside, went downstairs to get electric ties, grabbed my gloves, went back out but . . don’t ask me why but I took my coat of before I headed downstairs and didn’t put it back on before going out again so the little sweatshirt jacket I wear in the house wasn’t doing me much good out there.
I got the first faucet covered. There’s a hot and cold faucet next to each other by the garage so I got those done. Good .. mission accomplished.
The gloves had to come off so I could work with those electric ties. Of course, in the process, I turned the first faucet on accidentally. It’s about shoulder level to me because of the basement on that side of the house so water went down the front of my shirt. Ice cold water!
Anyway, I got back to the house and . . where’s my other glove? Back out . . I had dropped it, thankfully not too far into the yard. Grabbed it and went back inside.
About an hour later, a thought raced through my head . . what about the faucet on the back? I had totally forgotten about that. I called Vince.
Me: I didn’t get a cover for the back faucet.
Vince: How many did you get?
Me: Three.
Vince: We only have three faucets! One on the street side, one by the garage and one in the back.
Me: NO . . The one by the garage has two – a hot and a cold.
Vince: Oh . . right!
Back out into the cold. I grabbed some batting, shrink wrap, plastic bag and tape. I put batting all around the back faucet, wrapped it in shrink wrap, taped it good, put more batting and then a plastic bag and taped it again. Hopefully it will stay nice and warm . . well, anything above frozen solid will be good. I’ll still leave a couple of faucets dripping Sunday night when it’s going to be near zero. Sometimes the weather says it’s going to be 1 on Sunday night, sometimes it says -2. It was saying -6 so even zero sounds better than -6.
I was happy to get back inside and get myself nice and warm. I told Vince . . let’s not forget next winter that we’re short one faucet cover. He’ll be here by then to deal with these kinds of things . . I hope!
Elle says
The only year we’ve had frozen pipes is when it was -29 to -20 for a week. 🙁 we can be around zero for a long time and no problems. We have never covered our outside faucets.
Judy Laquidara says
We did have one at a previous house that froze and broke in the basement and we had to tear out drywall to get it fixed. I’m a little nervous after that incident so I always take precautions.
Ruth says
Heck, order that last faucet cover now and put it on when it arrives. Then you are prepared for next year.
Dorothy Matheson says
I do still have to cover the one that I use for watering in the greenhouses. They are done so I will do that tomorrow.
We are in houses that sit up off the ground so have to drip faucets in the bathroom or it freezes. It did that two or three years ago and I was out with small electric heaters to slowly melt the ice and it worked and no break in the pipe. So will not forget this year.
I have two little dogs and it is 8 steps to the ground and I have no luck getting either of them to go somewhere else. Not the front yard Not even on puppy pads all over the bathroom floor. At least it is easy to clean up there.
Most of the time I only have to wave them off the porch and they go down and I watch to see that they actually do something then let them back in.
Younger 9 months one does not like to come back in. Well still a work in progress.
Elle says
Wrap pipes with electrical tape. It’s fabulous. Never worry again. 🙂
Paula says
Chances are that Walmart has them. Add one to your grocery order.
Judy Laquidara says
I need them for Sunday and am not going to WM before then so what I have will have to work for this week. WM does have them and I added two to my list since they’re cheap so we’ll have them for next year! Thanks.
Suzette Harris says
Can you put it on your phone as an appointment to remind you some time in the future?
Judy Laquidara says
I just added some to my grocery pickup order that I’ll get next week.
Nelle Coursey says
We always have our faucets covered in the winter and it does not get that cold here. Just something we have always done. They do get old and stretched out, crumble from the various weather temps., etc.
Judy Laquidara says
We always used them there too and they often didn’t last more than one winter. The sun there can be brutal even in the winter. From now on, we’ll have them and they’ll be on so no one is out putting them on when it’s 16 degrees.
Susan Nixon says
You can tell I’m a desert girl. I never heard of faucet covers! I’ve never covered my faucets here – outside ones. I drip the indoors faucets if the weather says below 25, because I live more than 800 ft. higher than the airport where the weather comes from. My pipes are on the back wall, and I don’t have any idea how much insulation there is on that wall.
Carolyn says
I never heard of faucet covers either until this year. I saw them in Home Depot or Lowes and we bought two for our faucets. We had a faucet freeze at our last house because we forgot to turn off the water and didn’t want it to happen again. Who knew it was that easy? Not us!!!
Barbara says
I live in Minnesota, and draining the outside faucet is a regular fall chore. I turn the water off to the faucet in the house, and then open the faucet outside to drain any remaining water.
It’s really easy because all the outside water lines have a shut off valve in the house. Is that not typical in Missouri? Some newer houses here have outside faucets that are considered frost proof.
Judy Laquidara says
We don’t have ways to drain our outside faucets. Our outside faucets are all frost proof but I don’t trust that when we’ve had two straight weeks of temps in the single digits at night and teens in the day. This is my second house in MO and neither have had ways to drain outside faucets. I can turn the water off to the whole house from the inside and drain it but . . that’s ALL water to the house. Our neighbor said it was -20 a few years ago and she said none of the houses in our neighborhood had problems then.
Twyla says
First husband: I complained about how cold our old farm house was that I was having to wear my coat, cap and gloves to cook supper (what was I thinking…young and really dumb). And that I needed a heater in the small kitchen on the north side of the house. Well, this was too much for him to do considering he was hot natured anyhow. So one night he left the kitchen sink water dripping and he got up first to start his coffee the next morning. .He got to the kitchen and stepped on ice like a skating ring and slid all over the kitchen and ended up on his backside. That night when I got home from work there was a Dearborn heater hooked up in the kitchen and it was toasty warm for me. LOL. still funny after over 40 years.
Judy Laquidara says
Thinks definitely have a way of changing when others walk in your shoes (or slide on your floor!). So glad you got some heat in there.
Karen says
DH covered our two faucets yesterday and offered our two extra to our neighbor. We had extra because we had to protect the toilet water supply from our crazy dog (she broke a pipe there once). I’m glad we had extra because they are good neighbors and they were just about to head to the store to try to find some.
Judy Laquidara says
You are good neighbors. I know they greatly appreciated it.