FROZEN WATER--help?

[boondocks]

Hi,
We are in the thralls of the longest coldest winter anyone can remember around here. It's staying near or below zero, weeks now,with winds chills down to 20 below or more. We have 2 springs on the property. One of the springs is located in the cows' wintering area. The other spring is well outside their current pasture but we use it to keep a big water trough going (with an immersion heater). (There's an underground pipe then hose at trough). We leave the water running low into the trough (with an overflow). Despite checking it twice a day or more and being pretty diligent, it has frozen up with the bitter cold. Have been working to get it unfrozen but so far no luck. If we can get it flowing again (it has been several days), we have bought a heated hose which should help.

We have no relief in sight from this bitter bitter cold. In the meantime, the cows are drinking from the little spring they have access to. We are checking it a couple times a day. The water is flowing out of the rock into a small pool-let. There is not much captured there at a time (a few gallons, I'd guess) but it is constantly renewing/flowing and does make a little stream that runs off from it. There's also plenty of snow, which I've read isn't ideal but they will eat if need be.

They are eating fine and seemingly in good shape, and urine and manure look normal, but I worry they won't drink enough, and/or they will get sick as the area around the spring is now pretty manure-laden. How worried should I be? I will put out buckets of water if need be but for 18 animals, it would be very hard to do...Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Aaron]

So is it the underground pipe that is frozen?

If the snow is light and fluffy, they will do just fine on it. I would be far more concerned with the muck water they are drinking.

 

[Stocker Steve]

So is it the underground pipe that is frozen?

If the snow is light and fluffy, they will do just fine on it.

:nod:

If you rather thaw things out call a plumbing company. They will have the equipment for this.

 

[Aaron]

So is it the underground pipe that is frozen?

If the snow is light and fluffy, they will do just fine on it.

:nod:

If you rather thaw things out call a plumbing company. They will have the equipment for this.

It really can't be that big a deal. Depending on the depth of the buried line and amount of existing snow cover over it, they usually aren't frozen that far from either end of the pipe.

 

[jedstivers]

Give some more detail on what's frozen,pipe in the the ground, pipe out of the ground.
Is your or anyone else's house close? If so run a water hose out of it into a trough. Put the hose up after every use.

 

[jerry27150]

take a smaller flexible pipe & slide it inside frozen pipe & pour hot water down pipe & keep shoving it in farther as the ice melts. you can carry hot water to the site or build fire there & heat it

 

[boondocks]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. We have thawed it with blowtorches and a salamander at each end (the springhead and the barn) but still no water, so it's frozen past where we can get to it. Have run boiling water in too, to no avail. Argh. Looks like we'll have to get a heated hose and run it from the house...
Thanks all!

 

[Aaron]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. We have thawed it with blowtorches and a salamander at each end (the springhead and the barn) but still no water, so it's frozen past where we can get to it. Have run boiling water in too, to no avail. Argh. Looks like we'll have to get a heated hose and run it from the house...
Thanks all!

How long a distance of pipe between the barn and spring are we talking about? Is the pipe metal or plastic (I assume plastic), how deep is it buried?

 

[boondocks]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. We have thawed it with blowtorches and a salamander at each end (the springhead and the barn) but still no water, so it's frozen past where we can get to it. Have run boiling water in too, to no avail. Argh. Looks like we'll have to get a heated hose and run it from the house...
Thanks all!

How long a distance of pipe between the barn and spring are we talking about? Is the pipe metal or plastic (I assume plastic), how deep is it buried?

Hi Aaron,
It's about 200 ft from the standpipe in the barn to the valves at the spring box. (The spring itself is a long ways off but the water's fine to where the spring box is; it also feeds the house so we know the problem is from the spring valve to the barn). The pipe is metal and is buried below frost line--which is supposedly 48" here.

Push comes to shove, we can get a very long bunch of hoses and run water from the house, but that presents potential issues with keeping the humans watered (and keeping those lines from freezing)...
Thanks!

 

[Aaron]

Well if the pipes are metal, I have a suggestion. I've never done it, only heard about it. Sure someone on here can help fill in the blanks. But you can use a DC engine-driven welder to break out the blockage in the pipe. Turn it down to 75 amps and clamp each end of the pipe. Supposed to take only a minute or two to open it up.

Again it's an old-time solution and not many insurance companies would take kindly to it today, but I am sure someone on here has been crazy enough to try it before.

 

[boondocks]

Thanks Aaron, will run that by the powers-that-be. (I'm the designated fretter, not the muscle. Apparently no one in our little operation is the brains....

 

[gonzo]

HEY BOONDOCK , I got those pocket hoses as seen on TV . Don't laugh 200 feet of hose fits easily in a 5 gallon bucket it role and unroles pretty much by itself . I fill my troughs every other day , when I'm done I wind the hose into a bucket and hang the bucket next to the woodstove . Priced heated hose not worth it

 

[gonzo]

Well if the pipes are metal, I have a suggestion. I've never done it, only heard about it. Sure someone on here can help fill in the blanks. But you can use a DC engine-driven welder to break out the blockage in the pipe. Turn it down to 75 amps and clamp each end of the pipe. Supposed to take only a minute or two to open it up.

Again it's an old-time solution and not many insurance companies would take kindly to it today, but I am sure someone on here has been crazy enough to try it before.

Genes welding in fonda did it for a friend of mine years ago

 

[boondocks]

Thanks Gonzo! May have to noodle on that if we can't get it worked out here soon. fonda isn't too far

 

[gonzo]

I'D Be think'n of a more long term fix this spring. Bedrock is on the top of the ground a lot of places in your area ,if you can't get it lower you may have to get creative. :???:

 

[gonzo]

It finally warmed up how'd you make out with your water. :cboy:

 

[herofan]

We haven't had continuous cold weather like this in a long while. I had forgotten that even after warm temps come, it take forever for things to thaw. We had a heatwave of 60F yesterday after single digit and 0 temps throughout January. I have an underline pipe to the spring that still didn't thaw, and I was walking on a pond yesterday at 3:00pm, even though it was 60F. It was still hard as a rock.

 

[pdfangus]

I was on a farm once where we tried the welder thing....it did not work as best I can recall.....I spent a lot of time digging frozen ground to find the pipes

 

[boondocks]

It finally warmed up how'd you make out with your water. :cboy:

Hi Gonzo,
We couldn't get the underground pipe from spring to barn thawed but did manage to get a hose run from the spring to the little pasture nearby. It's a bit of a pain; we put the heater in the tank but have to keep the hose wide open, so we fill the tank a couple of times a day from the hose and the rest of the time let it run into a field we're not using until spring. So it's not ideal, but hopefully we'll be able to limp thru until things warm up...someday....

you getting ready for the big snow? Looks like you're just a teeny bit east of us