Friday night I was able to get someone out to fix the generator. I had been after the authorized service dealer for months, but to no avail. So Friday morning, the genny took three tries to fire, then blew the air cleaner off and backfired 20-odd times.
I wrote the service dealer a letter, thanking them for nothing - around noon. Shock of shocks, they called me back and wanted to get a tech out the same day.
Sure enough, about 8pm, plowing up my hill - a heavy Chevy 4x4 with chains. Tech didn't have the info needed to take care of everything I needed, but he got the genny running smooth. We let it charge the batteries and wrapped things up for the night.
Saturday morning however, no water, frozen pipes. And the genny cranks but won't fire.
Heater in the shed (where the water lives) is broke - well, propane line to it is broke and frozen... ...same result.
Though a bit smokey and delicious smelling, I fired the little propane grill hoping to gen enough heat to thaw things out. It was 48 in the shed at one point. Don't know if thawing out the shed will unfreeze all that needs to be, but might help keep fittings from breaking - and 400 gallons of water from dumping out.
I was able to run my Raider all the way down and then make the mad dash back up with a running start. A very MAD dash. But no way could I let it be known that a Chevy truck made it up the hill, and the Raider couldn't.
Stuff never really did thaw in the shed. Never did get the genny to fire.
Oh, the biggest ray of sunshine Saturday? Yeah, the sun was actually shining. Very unexpected, but very welcome. Dug, brushed, and scraped as much of the snow and ice as I could off the solar panels. Lo and behold we're charging batteries.
Siphoned water for flushing and drinking.
Scraped more ice off the panels, but looks like the sun is done for the day.
Sunday morning, no running water, still no genny. Really wishing I had stuck to the plan of dumping the pellet stove and putting in a wood burner. The stove is useless without backup power. We're pretty much dead in the water up here.
I removed and drained the water filter, and used a small torch to melt the ice in yhe shutoff valve. Closed the main to the house.
It took some fanagling but I started pumping the 400 gallons out to the transport tank - that should be a nice block of ice when I go back. Probably should have just dumped it on the ground, but thought of that too late. Pumping the water out was the only way to ensure the shed didn't get flooded when things think about thawing out.
We sprung a leak on the low end of the bedroom roof. The snow freezes solid on the eaves, then as the snow above it melts, water is trapped in an ice lake on the roof. An hour or so chopping ice with the ax seemed to remedy most of the problem. I'm sure it froze up again and started leaking as soon as we turned our backs.
Shoveled the snow out of the Nissan and loaded up to leave. Crossed my fingers that the carport roof wouldn't collapse under the weight of the snow (it looks iffy), and that no other catastrophes would hit while we're away.
One final frustration - while running around messing with hoses and pumps - a dozen (MASSIVE) wild turkeys wandering around. Too far away to shoot.
Today is Wednesday, already bored to death at the lake house. Aching to get back in the blind. Will likely go up tomorrow just to hunt, stay over night, see what happens.
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