Yesterday I was fretting about the stovepipe because I saw that it was already bending under the weight of snow sliding slowly down over it from above. After about a day of thinking about how hard or impossible it would be to reach the snow and pull it off the stovepipe and its struts, I finally had an epiphany: use the hot-water faucet we had installed outside to melt the snow from above the pipe.
This picture was taken after I cut the snow away from the struts.
This I did. First, I pull the hose out from under 2 feet of snow, which was pretty easy. Then I had to remember where I last laid the ladder. Not so easy. I had to wander around the house for a while, thinking laddery thoughts, until, like a water witch, I sensed it beneath me.
I had to do a little substantially more digging to get that one out, but it was nothing I couldn't do with my hands.
Finally I mounted the roof, hose in hand, hot water turned on. And it wouldn't flow.
Naturally in all this freezing weather the hose was iced-up. It wasn't irretrievably frozen though, so after bending most of the hose little by little over my knee, water began to trickle out of it. Slowly but surely the rate increased and I began cutting the snowy tumor from the ailing patient. With hot water coming out of the "Jet" setting of our nozzle attachment, it was like performing laser surgery.
When I had removed enough snow from above the struts, I saw and heard the tension release as the stovepipe rebounded a little toward its original, vertical position. It will not return to truly vertical though until we replace the struts, which are now shaped more like a longbow than a flag pole.
4 comments :
Good grief!! Glad you remedied the situation. Good thinking!!
You certainly are handy, James! Is your b-day today or tomorrow or something like that? If so, HB!
Lisa
Don't forget to drain the water out of the hose before it fleezes again. Especially the nozzle.
Many years ago I had a nice water flow timer. It kept track of how much water had flowed out through the faucet, and then it would shut off the water. It could, for example, be set for 100 cubic feet of water, then shut itself off. It was great for me and my forgetful ways, and I didn't have to worry about letting the water run all night. I left it on the faucet all winter and it froze and split apart.
BoPop says, "I left it on the faucet all winter and it froze and split apart."
So that's where I got it! I always had wondered why I did the same thing -- now I know! Grandpa Z
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