TEXAS TAYLOR TRAVELS: Feb1-21 The Big Chill

The month started out as usual . Kevin cleaned up some brush and trees in the pasture and moved some junk vehicles that are headed to the junkyard. The drizzling rain kept the pasture a little to wet to do everything he wanted to do. Susan and I got our first covid shots on the 9th. It took awhile to get scheduled but the process went smooth and easy, we get our second shot March 2. Susan had her annual M.D. Anderson checkup and it was good . She was scheduled for a colonoscopy (routine) and an upper GI (having trouble swallowing, acid reflux,etc}. This got rescheduled due to the big chill. An Artic Blast was heading our way. At first forecast it looked like just a couple of bad days but then changed into much more. We stocked up on supplies, I filled 4 5 gallon buckets of water for flushing toilets in case of power outage. I got both my generators set up. Normally we just move into trailer for extended power outages but that's typically in warmer months. It was going to be too cold to stay in trailer. My water well runs on 220 and my big generator has 220v production but when in 220v mode there is no 110v output. I'm on Entergy (not part of ERCOT) and they had just finished trimming tree limbs and such in our area so I didn't think we would have extended outage. I decided to just drip water pretty good and use generators on house. I drained both rvs and all the outside lines to garden and down to Kevins. I tarped my well house and put 100 watt light bulb in it and I tarped the inlet water to house and also had light bulb, Both are on North side. We never lost power due to Line issues but we got caught up in the power blackouts, Our first blackout lasted about 14 hours. I opened all the water drains on house, I didn"t worry about well house because it was tarped and light was hooked to generator. My furnace is propane so I hooked up to its power source so we had heat the whole time. I was set up to run Susan's sewing room and our tv"s. My small generator could handle this. My big generator ran fridge, coffee maker,microwave, freezer and lights to well house. The first time the power came back on I tried my water well but it was already froze up. Other than no running water we were fine thru it all. After about 3 days we got our power back and no more outages.When it finally warmed up I started inspecting lines. I keep lots of fittings but not enough for everything. I got the well going and water to the garage. I have lots of pipes busted in garage attic. The house lines are cvpc. I think these lines are just old and brittle and just split, there really wasn"t water in them. Getting enough pipe and fittings is a challenge. I may have enough except for block valves. I pulled the trailer and set it up. We now have hot showers, functioning toilets and kitchen sinks. Another thing happened, Friday evening I stepped outside about 5:46 and I smelled propane, I checked my tank and it was venting some out of a plug, it was not the safety valve. I never in my life had ever had a problem with a propane tank. With the brisk north wind I didn"t think there was a problem igniting but I didn"t take any chances. Shut the main breaker down to house and turned the hot water heater off, ( it was just on pilot). Just didn"t want any source of ignition. I called my propane folks but could not get ahold of anyone. Talked to a couple of neighbors and they had"t seen this before either. One of them called Fire Marshall, he said pour some water over it and it might freeze up. Tried it but didn"t work. We spent the night at my sisters. The propane guys came out next morning. It was the Liquid Withdraw line that was leaking. In screws into tank but also has a threaded piece on top that that has an o ring in it, he took that little part off and put lots if pipe dope on it and screwed it back on tight. Luckily it held. He said to let the tank run out and they would replace. Tank has to be empty. Glad I didnt have to lose what I had because i just filled it before the freeze. He also said with such low pressure propane doesn"t ignite that easily after about 20 ft. Now I have to get in garage attic and start re-piping.