Freezing Hoses

One of our least favorite activities in winter is filling the water tanks for the horses.  With 16 tanks ranging in size from 70 gallons to 300 gallons spread across three barns and more than a dozen corrals, filling those tanks is quite a chore. Especially when it's, say, 8 above zero.  Our biggest problem is keeping the hoses from freezing when they're not in use; even though we drain them, there's always some water left and it freezes hard.  All it takes is a tablespoon or two of water to plug up a 100' hose.

In Beauty's Barn we can store the hoses in the heated medical room.  For Lena's Barn and Scout's Barn we have no heated storage area, and that's where the problem is.  So two of our fabulous volunteers from Seattle, Wayne S. and Jan. R., came out this weekend to do something about it.

As you can see in this photo, Wayne is building us a heated, insulated 'hose hut' to store our hoses.  (They even bought new hose reels to go with it.)  It's not quite finished yet ... this will have swinging doors to enclose it and an access ramp to make it easier to get the reels into the hose hut.  Wayne brought all his tools from Seattle, bought the materials in Missoula, and worked out of the back of his truck all weekend.

Thank you!

Comments

[Karen SA/TX]

That is so great. Nothing worse than working with water in the cold! It will leave more time to pet and play, and sit by the fire with Widget. She is such a good girl to wear that cone for so long.

[ginger & Tobias (the greythound)]

Yeah Wayne & Jan! What a wonderful act you are performing for our angels at the RDR! That is marvelous work you are doing & we so appreciate it....what a time saver it's going to be not to have frozen hoses. Consider yourselves hugged from Texas along with a big ole greythound lick!

[Mandy, Laramie, WY]

That is truly amazing. Way to go Wayne! What a treat to have an easily accessible way to keep your hoses safe from the cold.

[Roz]

How wonderful, Wayne and Jan. Thank you for lightening the ranch load.