During an unrelated discussion on a forum, I had a revelation about the fresh water tank.

I forget how we got on the topic, but I found myself saying that I don’t like to use my fresh water tank because the water is musty and I’m pretty sure there is some algae growth in it. I shock it with chlorine twice a year before filling it for my travels between locations, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference.

What the person said in response to that was that if I filled and emptied the tank regularly, that is actually used it on a day to day basis, there would be no time for water to stagnate and grow organisms. So obvious, but that completely escaped me!

So, I’m definitely living off my fresh water tank this winter. I’ll fill it up every time we go above freezing and use the weather forecast as a guide to how much I can use. We’re supposed to go above freezing for a stretch starting Sunday, so I need to make my current half tank last. That means showers every other day and being frugal when I do the dishes. But when we’re on a long stretch of warm where I’ll be able to fill every day, I won’t ration myself.

One of the things I will do when we hit the warmest day of the stretch is to work on the non-repair of the fresh water tank intake. What I did in May of ’09 has held up well enough, but it’s getting harder and harder to fill without getting a significant leak. I catch that leak in a bucket and use it to flush out the black tank, so there’s no waste, but it might be time to bite the bullet and do a proper repair.

For drinking and cooking, I am still using a BPA-free plastic jug, which I love, and which I fill with tap water. I’m so glad the tap water here is as good as it is. I fill up the jug every three or four days and getting water from it is no more effort than getting it from the tap.

The only downside to this plan is that every time I go out and fiddle with the water, a ‘helpful’ person comes by and tells me that I should invest in heat tape and insulation for my hose or that I’m welcome to string hose from their tap to my intake. The first few times this happened was fine, but it’s getting repetitive. I explain the reasons I’m not doing heat tape, such as my having to ration my amperage, but folks of a certain age have a notion about things needing to be done their way even if it’s not the right way for someone else. I did the heat tape thing back in Oliver and, frankly, I found that the expenditure wasn’t justified; I still had issues with the hose freezing. If I felt it to be a good solution I would spring for the $70 or so, but it doesn’t seem worth my while. Living off the fresh water tank is no hardship and now that I’m in the habit of doing it, I’m guaranteed running water to about minus ten, a luxury I never experienced while running heat tape.

With the water pump getting so much use, I wonder if I should be getting a quote for having it replaced. Just in case. 😀

(*’of water’, pronounced ‘Doh!’ 😀 )

When I started to get ready for the colder weather, I debated whether to get a water hose heat tape or not. I decided not since I didn’t find it that effective for really cold spells. Instead, I decided to live off my water tank and to keep my water hose empty so that I wouldn’t have to worry about having it available for fills. For some reason, I forgot all of this when we had our recent thaw and I’ve been without water since my hose froze again before I had a chance to disconnect it.

Since we went up above zero today, I got the hose thawed, then filled up the holding tank and the drinking jug. So long as I don’t go crazy with the showers and it doesn’t drop below minus five or so during the day, I should be good for water for a week.

I brought Midnight out while I was playing with the water. It wasn’t cold enough for his winter coat, so I had him wear his sweater. Ain’t he cute?

I awoke to plus one, so the rig was very comfortable. First order of business was a doggy with his legs crossed. Never mind that mine were crossed as well, we went out and frolicked in the snow for about ten minutes. Then he went right back to bed. Must be nice being a dog!

Life on Our Ark’s very own Midnight

I was just starting to get a hankering for breakfast when there came a knock at my door. Could it be the furnace man? It was! He spent about a half hour getting it hooked up and then we tested it. I can’t believe how quiet it is! Yes, there, is the sound of blowing air, but I don’t find it annoying in the least. It does help that I’m two rooms away from the blower; we’ll see what it’s like at night.  Now that I know what the furnace is supposed to sound like I can tell it’s been on its last legs for a very long time.

I can’t believe it’s December 1st and that very soon I will be full-timing RVing in a fourth year. 2008 feels so far away!

I had a great night, curled up in my -7 sleeping bag under the duvet with the kitties. The rig is just a notch above tolerable this morning. It helps that we’re only sitting at -1, with a fine layer of snow.

Midnight seems to have had a good night. I heard him whining a bit as I was reading in bed before sleep and I just kept repeating “Go to bed, Midnight” until he did. This morning, he was glad to see me and we went out to the tree for a brief minute. I’ll take him out for a proper walk this afternoon, and we’re about to head out to run some errands.

He followed me around while I made breakfast and then just sat at the base of my chair looking up at me while I tried to get some work done. I put my arms down and he jumped right into them so I could bring him up onto my lap, where he is now snuggled and snoring. Too cute!