Ice Ice Baby

For the first time in the three winters I have lived here we had actual ice!  It was even thick enough on the water trough that the girls could stand on it.  It was raining all day Friday and most of Friday night and the prediction was that the rain would freeze and everything would be a sheet of ice Saturday morning.

I had to steal a cuddle buddy since I don't have one.

Thankfully, that was incorrect there must have been enough of a break between when the rain stopped and when it actually froze that most of the water was off the roads or absorbed into the ground.  I lived outside of Atlanta in 2014 when they got a few inches of snow and everything was a mess for about two weeks after that.  I did not want to experience the even further south version of that.

I seriously want to steal this dog

Saturday, I spent most of the day helping at the barn and for once in my life made a smart life decision.  I did not ride Stinker.  He had Friday off plus they were in all day on Friday (~36 hours without turnout) so riding seemed like it was going to be a mess until he ran off some of that pent up energy.

Proof of ice

Sunday morning I was in a total panic.  I turned on the shower to warm up and then when I walked back into the bathroom the water was barely dripping out of the tap.  I promptly started freaking out that my pipes had froze.  I turned off the shower and tested the sink.  Cold water was coming out just fine but there was nothing from the hot water.  I convinced myself that it was a hot water heater problem.

Sunday morning it was about 1.5" thick

I should mention that I am not a handy person.  Whenever my dad started getting out tools to fix things I booked it.  My animal first aid skills are stellar, my handiness is basically I know my basic tools.  I felt all the parts of the hot water heater and everything was cold.  I checked the temperature in the garage and it was 45 so I was pretty sure nothing was frozen unless it froze outside the house and I was also fairly sure that I wouldn't have cold water if that was the case.

Bad bad bad water heater which is super awkwardly placed

I proceeded to start flipping breakers because that is my solution to anything electronic.  When in doubt flip the switch.  I couldn't tell anything so I tried to wait awhile.  Of course my patience was minimal, so I started texting my east coast friends from grad school.  Thank god they are in a different time zone so I wasn't too obscenely early for a Sunday morning (honestly I think they have just given up on me with that one tho).

At least I have this guy to keep me happy

After discussing with them, we flipped more breakers and found a reset button on the hot water heater.  I decided to wait awhile and see what happened.  Finally about 6 hours after I discovered the problem I had hot water again.  My totally rational conclusion is my water heater is a baby and turns itself off when it gets too cold.  My mom reminded me later that it had happened the first year I lived here.  Thanks for the adventures water heater.  Of course we are back in the 70s/60 by Wednesday.