My 81 cent lead surcharge is a testing fee mandated by the state of Mn and paid to the state. I assume they test and we pay for it.
A few years ago when the weather was very cold for an extended period and little insulating snow cover, lots of people were having the in ground water pipes freeze up. Mine are plastic. Only one guy in town was good at unfreezing them. Think he used electrical current like a box welder on the metal pipes. I never had a problem but would check the cold water temp to see how close to freezing it was. City said to run a little stream of water to prevent freeze up, of course at your expense.
That is a given in TN for the most part, anytime the temp drops to, or below 25 degrees for very long, we let a faucet slowly drip, Our frost line is only about 12" deep… And yes we pay the bill, but it doesn’t effect the water bill very much (not going to make you or break you)… There is a fairly newer apartment/condo (whatever) built very close to our Kroger’s and there were signs up all around telling the people to leave the water dripping so it would not freeze…
Yeah another reason I don’t like leaving long term in the winter. Friend spends four months in Florida, four months in northern minnesota, and four months in southern Mn. Constantly packing and moving. I wouldn’t know where I was or what month it was. Plus you can get dried out traps in that length of time so nothing to stop the sewer gases.
Do you folks in cold climates build shallow ponds as a place to ice skate in the winter? I used to do that in Colorado, very fun! The lawn looked pretty miserable there though the next summer … lol …
I think if I was going away for an extended time in the freezing temps and the house was going to be empty, I would turn off the water at the main meter and open all the faucets and add a little antifreeze to the drains for added protection. So even if the heat went out, no problems… It always worked for dad when dealing with empty houses on the market back when houses didn’t sell in a week due to the internet… lol
I always shut the water off if we’ll be gone for more than a day or two winter and summer. People we knew had their refrige ice maker or something spring a leak and $3000 damage plus a mess. Last winter I did dump antifreeze around in the stools and drains. Year before I had my shop sink freeze up adjacent to the garage, so I did open that faucet.
I spent four months brazing air coolers on the assembly line so thought I was somewhat skilled. Still had two of my solder joints come loose. Caught them both fairly quickly. Only ones on a cold wall so there was some freezing involved. Had a freeze proof outdoor faucet spring a leak too. I’ll blame the plumber for that one. They have to be installed at an angle to drain the water out. Evidently not an enough of an angle. So yeah, I’m a little conscious of water leaks and freezing.
I have a pond.
My neighbor has a homebuilt rink. Both the school and the town have NiceRink temporary rinks- 40x90. The fire department uses filling them as a training exercise as they fill the tankers from local ponds and hydrants. When we take them down just before spring, the grass is still green under them having been protected from the cold winter air.
We have public skating rinks at the schools mostly with warming houses. Also a year round inside rink a private school. Hockey is big. Too big in my view beucause it requires fanatical commitment from the kids. We used to skate for fun. When we’d go ice fishing, dad would fish and I’d skate on the lake. This year though,it’s been so warm, the rinks have been closed a lot.
Ice is out on most lakes a month or so early which means navigating shore to shore with no ice. No idea what it was like the rest of the year. We would never drive on it with less than 12-18 inches though.
They are. I drive so rarely that the CO2 emissions of a replacement car would overwhelm what I generate now. I’d buy electric, or hybrid, if I bought another car, but I don’t think I will.
As for climate change, I’m vegan, drive <100 miles annually, bicycle > 2,000, live in a 590 ft2 home, don’t fly, eat at home, buy my clothes at the thrift store…
Any time we leave home, even for a weekend, we turn off the water to the house. Mrs JT also likes to turn off the water valves at the toilets too. One of our neighbors had a broken valve at a toilet and came home to a big flood. She has been vigilant since then.
Why?? Once you turn off the water supply to the house there is no way anything inside the house can leak under pressure, that is the whole point of turning the water off… Flush the toilets and done, no more water to make a mess… I just replaced the water valve (shut off valve) and with the main water turned off, nothing but a few drips of residual water came out…
BTW, 1/4 turn valves are soooo much better than the twist 20 times to turn off…
Here is where I replaced the valves under the sink a few years ago… Once the water is off before the valve nothing to make a big mess…
