Posted by Tim – CNP, OHP
BellMar Ranch & Gardens
December 4, 2025
BellMar Ranch & Gardens
December 4, 2025
For the past week I’ve been trucking water every other day in the 2003 F-150.
Stock tank for the beef herd.
Stock tank for the dairy cows.
And then there's the pails of water from the house...
Pails for the laying hens.
More pails for the breeding pigs and the barn cats.
The outside temperature climbed to –1 °C today (felt almost tropical), but the 12-foot overhead pipe to the barn is still a solid block of ice.
I’ve spent more time researching heat tape, self-regulating cable, Armaflex, Reflectix, and ABS clamshells than I have sleeping...
Words I didn't even know, let alone know how to spell before this most recent recurring nightmare barn pipe freeze up...
I’ve read every forum thread from Alberta to Minnesota.
I’ve watched videos of guys in –40 °C doing the exact same repair I’m about to do.
I’ve ordered parts, measured twice, and measured again.
Meanwhile, every morning and night I’m hauling 7-gallon pails from the house to the chickens and pigs because even the “warm” weather isn’t warm enough to thaw that pipe.
This is the part of ranching nobody puts in the pretty pictures.
But it’s the part that keeps the animals alive.
The fix is coming.
I’ll be filming the whole thing (and speeding it up 40× so you don’t have to watch me swear at frozen duct tape for three hours).
Stay tuned.
Because when that pipe finally flows again, I’m going to sleep like a man who just won the war.
All the best!
Your rubber armed rancher,
Tim – CNP, OHP
BellMar Ranch & Gardens
BellMar Ranch & Gardens
1 comment
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