Big snow storm/freeze prep

I have a "city" water meter and septic.

 

Ditto

 

Thank goodness I said most
It makes sense in flatter areas suburbs with acre lots.
Guessing avg septic roughly 25’ x 50’. Here they put 10 acre zoning in 60s and created suburban sprawl.

Urban areas with sewage treatment, here are on hills, water pumped to water towers and water treated before putting back to river or lake at bottom.
In short, chit goes down hill, and I am usually at bottom

 

Right there with you!

 

My town has at least a few people with mix and match water/sewer. Actually, years ago when Walmart was planning to build, they were going to use town water but have a septic system. IDK why - probably cost of running the sewer.

Also, I'll bet there are more than a few people in the town of Merrimac that now have city water but still have/use their septic (since the groundwater PFAS contamination from Saint Gobain was found several years ago).

 

There is at least one community around here where everyone have their own wells....but municipal sewer system.

 

Not that it's good for it, but at that low volume, and short term, it's not that bad.
The solids in the tank tend to settle (which is where most of your biology is) so low volume clear water will not wash that out, at least not to a detrimental degree.
A high volume of water for a long time would not be good though...

 

That exists here where public sewer has been mandated. Along rivers/lakes/ponds. Sewer goes by my house but it is only a force main/high pressure line. I have my own well. No water bill. If you have sewer here you have town water. I don't see how they would bill otherwise. I've never heard of a cesspool freezing, but leeching fields do. It's not common though that I know of. It has been colder, for longer here and that's when weird stuff starts happening.

 

If there was no existing city sewer nearby for them to hook to, running new sewer lines is VERY expensive these days...a small package plant (prefab sewer treatment plant) would/could be MUCH less!
Outside of city limits its much more common for people to have city water, but not sewer, rather than both, or sewer, but not water.
In areas that don't have much soil depth before hitting solid rock, it would blow your mind to know what it costs to run a mile of water or sewer pipe!

 

Deleted, I do not want to be accused of being cranky, LOL.

 

Aw comon man...it's cold out, we all trapped inside with nothing to do but feed the fire...need some entertainment...

 

Well and septic system here and happy with that! Town water tastes like $*** so when in town and out to dinner it’s either beer or iced tea for a beverage

As for the storm we are most concerned with ice buildup on trees and power lines. We have very little power lines buried so when the outages occur they are usually pretty widespread.

Did as much prep as possible yesterday by making sure the generator runs and have 10 gallons of fuel available. Plenty of firewood in the wood rack on the deck and several 5 gallon water jugs filled.

Checked out the camping trailer and made sure all systems operating on generator power and LP so if need be we can at least sleep in a warm environment.

 

Right on the drain field being what freezes. Or the line running to the tank.

Usually happens when people drive snowmobiles over the lines/drain field or inadvertantly shovel/snowblow/plow directly over drain field. That allows the frost to drive deeper.

 

My real concern with this storm is the temps coming next week. We are looking at a mix of snow and frozen rain. And it's going to stay frozen for a while.
My prep so far was to move about 10 days' worth of wood up near the house.
Today my wife pulled a ham bone she had stored in the freezer from Christmas and made ham and bean soup. She took some to both our moms.
I have a large pot of my famous beef stew in a red sauce cooking on the stove now.
Later I need to fill the bathtub up with water so we can flush if the power goes out. That is my only problem with having a well. One day I want to get a generator to hook up to that.
Beer fridge is full.
Stay safe and warm everyone!

Today 18 outside 69 inside burning red and white oak. I love oak.

 

All freeze prep work is complete, now its time for old Knothead to warm up!

 

That looks good

 

Last thing for prep, although it is unlikely I will lose power (snow will be deep, but light, powdery stuff), is to make a pot of coffee. It goes in the fridge and I heat 12 ounces at a time. Then top off my cannister of filtered water, which will last for several days for me and the cats.

 

Being on a well with no generator, I'll fill a couple of water jugs. About 10gal. Thanks for posting that, folks!

We rarely lose power for any length of time. Our power feed comes off the main line that runs along the state highway.

 

Yes it will. We were -16° overnight through yesterday morning. My nephew, nextdoor, left more than one faucet running and his main water line still froze under the house as well as other pipes. He's looking at a big repair. He was quoted $8000 yesterday.

 

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