Ice Inside

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Adventure Date: 12-23-2022

Today was school day. The OFM went to school nearly all day learning lots of stuff about living in 4F temperature and in a swampy wet area. The OFM thought he was ready for COLD weather after living five winters in Richland Washington while working his last job. Today we found out about desert cold weather and wet cold weather and a few differences. The Wheeler swamp around here keeps our humidity very high and miserable nearly all the time.

Last night it did snow a small amount and left small drifts of snow around the area. Here is a picture of Sierra with some slight snow on the windows.

We found out later that the doors of Sierra were frozen shut and we had to force them open to go to lunch. We have never before had vehicle doors freeze shut from ice on the door frame. It was a good lesson to remember.

The water heater in the Castle is in a back corner of the Castle in an outside access storage location. It has never had a freezing trouble before but the OFM put a thermometer in the storage bin next to where the water lines come from inside the heated part of the Castle and attach to the water heater. Thirty minutes later we went to check the thermometer and the door to the bin was frozen shut. After gaining entrance we found the thermometer reading 39F. So the OFM went inside to see what we would need to do to let the warm air access the water heater area to prevent pipes freezing.

It turned out to be easy to do. We removed the seat cushion of the dinette and slid the support board aside and that gave the inside air a nice large hole to get the bin warmer.

We checked later and the temperature at the heater was 61F and that will do just fine. Now we have that under control.

Now we are ready for another surprise right?

We use rigid foam cut to fit in the windows of the Castle to aid in the insulation of the entire trailer. Most of the windows we never or seldom use so the foam just stays there all year long enhancing our comfort heating and cooling.

Next to the do everything table is a large double window to see what's happening outside. Here it is with the foam in place for night and times during the day.

This morning when we sat down to eat breakfast the OFM opened the blinds and removed the top piece of foam and moisture from condensed humidity was on the window. We reached to wipe it off as usual and it turned out to be ICE frozen to the window pane on the inside of the window.

On our side of the foam the temperature was nice. On the window pane side it was freezing. The OFM scraped a little off to be sure and then put the foam back in place to close the pneumonia hole and keep us warm. An that was with our dehumidifier running inside the rig.

Now we are more on watch for things we have to learn about living in wet freezing temperatures.

Anyway it has been a pleasant day of trying to have toooo much gentle fun while hibernating out of the COLD weather.