The Village has declared a water emergency because of the extreme draught conditions we have been suffering under this year. The Village of McBride gets all of its water from Dominion Creek, whose water flow has been at record lows this year. Because of the low flows, it is feared that the creek may freeze up this winter, blocking all water to the town. Many restrictions on water use have been put on the residents of the Village.
We don’t get our water from the Village, but from Sunbeam Creek. Its flow has also been reduced by the drought and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will soon get some precipitation rain or snow, but our weekly weather forecast doesn’t show any.
The other day I noticed that our hydrant out by the barn had developed this stalagmite-looking icicle during our freezing weather. While it looks like a real gusher of water coming out of the hydrant, it is really just a very slow dribble that has frozen, and like a stalagmite, has just built up over time.
This drought has put us in a bit of a dilemma. While we certainly don’t want to waste water, at the same time, we have to keep a slow flow through our waterline, otherwise it will freeze up and we and the other 3 families on our waterline will have no water all winter. Every winter we have a small amount of water from our waterline, draining into my pond and into Beardsley Brook, in order to prevent our line from freezing. As the temperatures get colder, I expect the hydrant will totally freeze up and no longer add to the icicle that it has formed, and hopefully the slow flow through our waterline will keep it from freezing.
It is not like we are wasting water with our continuous flow, because if our waterline doesn’t take it, the water just goes down the waterfall and is gone. It is not like a storage tank that can empty.
You can see my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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