The dangers of being alone …
The well my house is on serves two other lots. One of them has a structure on it and the other the other one is empty. The structure is not occupied (”for sale”). So, I’m the only one drawing water from the shared well. Yesterday morning I had a shower and noticed how the water pressure was gradually getting worse. Initially I thought the whole-house water filter was dirty and replaced it without thinking further about it. Then in the afternoon I tried the sink in the kitchen and there was no water.
I checked the filter over and over again, but even without it, there was no water coming out of the main pipe. The time was 4pm. And I had to pick up Pia an hour later. I ran over to the unoccupied house and tried the outside hose-connection there. Sure enough, no water coming out. At least now I was sure that the problem was not isolated to my home. Called my plumber - on vacation. Called the previous owner of the place (who happens to own some other lots out here) and he agreed to come out and check things out.
When I returned from picking up Pia he was in the well-house nearby and told me that the switch that sends the well-pump the “go” signal had frozen over and that he was thawing it at the moment. It froze over a few days, perhaps even a week ago. There’s a huge holding tank in the well-house and I had been drawing water from the tank, which happened to be completely empty yesterday afternoon. He promised to have a crew out here today to work on the insulation and add a heating element to the switch.