Fixing Frozen Water Hydrants

It sure is frustrating to find this sight first thing in the morning.

 The hydrant was frozen. 2/3 of the cows were out grazing in the hills while this bunch was left thirsty. This is the culprit. A flow nozzle designed to control the water pressure and add years to your hydrant. We decided to use these when using the overflow, instead of turning the hydrant on full blast and then slowly lowering the pressure. Apparently this is bad for the hydrant. Somehow it got turned off. Standing water in pipes tends to freeze in freezing temperatures... imagine that.

So I did the first thing that came to my mind. I went home, grabbed my blow dryer and the suitcase generator, and thawed the thing out. It worked.

 First there was a slow trickle.

 And soon full pressure.

The Ranch Hand said I could've used the branding torch. This is true. In fact I felt kind of silly after he told me that. But you know what? There is more than one way to do anything. I could've build a fire around it if I wanted. I could've poured hot water over it. And a hundred other silly things. But the blow dryer worked just fine. So that's one way you can fix a frozen hydrant!