who’da thunk?

19 days without running water. That’s a lot of hauling from the frost-free spigot. Our pipes froze 3 weeks ago this Saturday, and we’ve been showering and doing laundry at our kids’ houses, using paper plates and flushing from 5 gallon buckets.

But today my wife ran into the plumber who originally made the call. He suggested something I’d never heard of, and honestly didn’t think was even possible. He said that if we ran a hose from our frost-free spigot to the outside faucet on our house, we’d have water.

Slap me silly! Running water. Hot water. Ahhhh.

It’s temporary. The hose is lying on top of many inches of unmelted snow, and it’s supposed to get down to 30 F tonight. So we’ll see if dripping faucets and the dishwasher set on a 6-hour delay can keep the hose defrosted. The next few days look promising temperature-wise.

And meanwhile it’s really nice. We’re using all the water we can while we can. Running water. Hot water. Dee-lux, with handle-flush toilets and everything.

Maybe soon I can think about gardening again.  It’s been too long.