Drowning of Thirst: Svaneti
Never again, I tell myself. But the words alone guarantee nothing.
Weather... While the worldwide temperature trend at the moment may be a rising one, with 2015 the warmest since records began, weather itself is technically called a chaotic system. This means that despite the global average, a much wider range of local weathers and temperatures around that average is possible.
Enter Svaneti’s 2015-16 winter season, which kicked off with a bang in October: three feet or so of snow in about two days, and we’ve had plenty of unseasonably cold temperatures to go with it. The first time I ever saw a Mestia Region forecast of down to minus 21 degrees C was a few days ago; I hadn’t seen such a low since my Ushguli winters of 2007-9, where they are more normal.
Which brings us to... freezing water pipes. Never again, but again.
The long-term cause of my house’s suffering this affliction all too regularly might well be that I didn’t bury the plastic pipe quite deep enough in the ground when laying it just before my wife joined me in the house, in August 2012. Well, I was in a hurry, expecting a gaggle of German guests in early September, and there was a lot to do before they and my wife arrived: the water from 150 m away, electricity from 250, some windows and electrical work. And there was no bureaucrat looking over my shoulder, or more exactly those of the oxen a teenage boy was driving to plow the furrow for the pipe, telling me I must meet standards x, y and z or it was all illegal.
Oh no, here it’s as DIY (do it yourself) as you like! Total freedom to make a masterpiece or a mockery of renovations; burn, freeze, flood or electrocute you and yours. I did get local help and advice both, but they didn’t insist either, if or when it wasn’t being done as it should be.
So, once again, a few days ago my water pipe froze. At least it doesn’t burst when this happens! The crazy thing is that it was weeks after we had begun leaving the water running a trickle all night, just to prevent exactly this nightmare... at about 10:30 in the morning... in the sunshine... to me and my neighbor both, simultaneously. So I have a witness that it occurred as I’m telling it, and not just to me. He was able to solve his issue the same day. Not me. My pipe remains frozen as I write this.
Now, we have both an interior backup water barrel of 200 L and an exterior one of 1000. Also, this being the snow season, we’re surrounded by more water than we could consume in a lifetime, likely, just that which is on our land; even though, when it melts from white flakes to liquid it’ll condense to about 10% of its volume. So we’re both drowning in the stuff, one of Georgia’s great natural resources nationwide, and threatened with thirst. The outhouse still works, and we’ve started using it to conserve the barrel water for drinking and washing with. It’s a deluxe type privy: motion sensing light inside, seat instead of squat, sawdust to chuck down the hole to minimize odor. No point in being less comfortable that you must, with little effort!
Nonetheless, I went to Zugdidi at my earliest convenience and bought a 100 m and a 50 m length of new plastic pipe to lay from the village’s iron source pipe down to the house. They turned out to be exactly the right length when joined, without needing to cut off or add anything. Surely, I thought, this means that the fates—or God—are smiling on me! I laid it all out, assembled it while the fiery orange sunset light on Ushba both dazzled and mocked me with its unique, unphotographable glories (I was too busy!), and connected source to house.
But the water refused to flow from there to here. It must have frozen inside the pipe somewhere, and stubbornly remains so, while all around it is melting by day.
I disconnected the two lengths, and checked each individually. There they lie now, waiting for just a bit more time to analyze things in as scientific a way as frustration allows, a bit more thought, a bit more warmth, perhaps the help of a kindly neighbor, undeserved though it may be. We’ll get there; the alternative, after all, is to give up, pack up, and depart for Tbilisi. But this is home; we’re making it so.
The morning of the pipe-freeze, before we got up, I said to my wife that we had each other and electricity. She had the longest, hardest laugh in months. I suppose I should have added water to the list?
Another nonetheless: the guest house remains open for business, of course! With little if any discomfort for visitors to show for it! And we’ll lick this problem, too, and maybe even come up with a long-term solution into the bargain. Not over till it’s over!
Tony Hanmer runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 1250 members, at
www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:
www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
Tony Hanmer