Frozen Pipes

  Leamon Riggs and Helen Fox were married on October 19, 1957.  Their first abode was a small rented house on Rover Route, east of the county road, about a half mile north of "Rouintree Corner."  In today's lingo this would be "On 3730 just north of East 160" (I say something is lost in the modern translation.)  Mom told me that Dad spent most of that winter, thawing out frozen pipes.  To the best of my recollection, this was his observation at the end of that winter.  "I will never go through another winter like this.  I'm going to make sure that the pipes will not freeze in any other house I live in."  He was a man of his word because I can only remember one time when our water froze.
  We were living in the "Farley Place" on Rover Route when it happened.  We built the house in the early 70's but we call it the "Farley Place" because our Pastors, Leon and Helen Farley, lived there in the 80's.  Go figure!  Now days, it is occupied by Freddie and Brenda Howell.
  We woke up one cold winter morning with no water.  The well and pump were in a small, heated building where we kept our deep freeze and our canned vegetables, so no problem there. I'm sure Dad was kinda perplexed because he built and prepared so this would not happen.  It turned out to be a perfect storm.
  When we built the house, there was a place where the sill plate didn't fit down snug against the concrete foundation.  In layman's terms...there was a crack or gap between the house and the foundation.  Can you guess what was directly in line with this gap?  Yep...The water line that served the house!  Since the house faced the west and was totally exposed on all sides, it received the brunt of the winter storms, blowing in from the west and northwest.  Old Man Winter had finally found a way to freeze our water!  Dad thawed out the pipe, sealed the gap and I can't remember our water ever freezing up again.

  When we lived at the "Homeplace", Dad took cold weather preparation to a whole new level.  The "Homeplace" was the last house we built and lived in before Dad passed away.  It was west of the "Farley Place" and just down the hill from "Paunch" Thompson's house.  As a matter of fact, Dad bought the land off of "Paunch".
  To protect the well and tank, we built a small, well-insulated (no pun intended) wellhouse.  Dad wired a light fixture inside with a switch outside so you wouldn't have to take the door out to turn on the light.  A 100 watt bulb provided enough heat to keep the water from freezing.  There was just one problem.  You had to take the door out to make sure the light was still on and had not burnt out!  In his usual fashion, my Dad remedied the problem.
  He took some string he had soaked in lighter fluid, tied it around a Coke bottle (they were made of glass back then) and then set the string on fire.  After it had burned a little bit, he dipped the Coke bottle in cold water and then he broke the bottle in half, right where the string had been!
  He cut a hole in the bottom of the wellhouse door, just the size of the Coke bottle bottom, put the Coke bottle in the hole with the bottom toward the outside, calked it in real good and put the door back in.

  The result?  When you turned the switch on outside, the light inside would shine through the Coke bottle and let you know all was well in Antarctica!


Found these pictures in an old photo album last night....

Standing on the front porch of the "Homeplace" looking north.  This is the winter of 85-86 just after Dad passed away.

 Google "Auto Awesome" gif!!  Cool!!

The view of the back of our shop looking north.

Looking east from the front of the shop, toward the "Farley Place".  As a matter of fact, Brother Leon and Sister Helen were living there when this picture was taken.