Winter at the Museum

The Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum is closed to the public January through April, except for special programs, and the staff works reduced hours.

Although our hours are reduced, we have had to arrange our schedules so someone is here every day, mainly to see if our water pipes have frozen.

It is probably stating the obvious to say that this has been a cold, snowy winter.  Nighttime temperatures here in Warner, NH have been in the single numbers or lower, and our daytime highs have rarely been above 32º.  In other words, we've had just the right conditions for frozen pipes.

The offices of the museum are in an addition that was built within the last six or seven years.  This addition is attached to the southwest end of the museum, and where the two structures meet there is a cold air leak that has been defying our attempts to plug it.  It also is the reason our pipes have frozen several times since Jan. 1.

As I write this, a space heater is running full blast, pumping heat into the wall where the frozen pipe is located.  A hole has been cut in the sheet rock to allow the heat to reach the pipe, which has been wrapped with insulation.  The cavity the pipe runs through has been sealed and insulated, yet Old Man Winter still finds a way to blast our water supply with his icy breath.

We have a contractor lined up to fill the wall between the main building and the office with blown-in insulation.  He's a good man and has every intention of doing the job as soon as he can.  He is also a busy man, plowing snow and working on construction projects, among other things.  As long as we continue to get our weekly foot of snow, the insulation job will have to wait.

When I got to work this morning I found that no water would run from the faucet in our kitchen sink.  That faucet in the sink is wide open now.  I wait, hoping that at any time I will hear the welcome sound of water gushing into the sink.

But wait - I just heard the snow sliding off the museum roof!   The icicles along the eaves seem to be a bit smaller today.  Maybe winter does not have the upper hand, after all.

Post script:  The water began running at 1:00 p.m., accompanied by loud cheers.