Sometimes people in the south forget where they're living

[lman]

I've normally washed my own vehicles, except in the winter. Up North, all of us have to turn our outside water off.
coin op car washes are often a sheet of ice inside

I return to my dream of an oversized garage with a center drain floor and smooth concrete to roll around on a seat to fuss with cleaning the wheels
well heated of course

roads here still glistening white from salt and brine

costs five bucks to drive to car wash. another cost consideration

I think car washes can be hard on your car though. First the scratched paint, even with latest tech, and then i wonder about my front end alignment
as the machine drags my front tires against the side of the rail and you feel the car jerk. I spend extra time trying to line up as straight as I can.
Actually....I have a forward camera I could turn on. Might try that next time.
of course I have to turn off all the proximity buzzers, they come alive when you go in a drive thru car wash.

I've never heard of anybody around here that shut off the outside water. We use freezeless hydrants and freezeless hose bibs attached to the house. We need outside water to feed the dogs, cats and horses. We even have a heated Nelson horse waterer. We were at -10F a couple days ago and nothing froze. I'm not going to attach a hose and make a skating rink while washing our car though.

 

[Sigarms]

I've normally washed my own vehicles, except in the winter. Up North, all of us have to turn our outside water off.
coin op car washes are often a sheet of ice inside

I return to my dream of an oversized garage with a center drain floor and smooth concrete to roll around on a seat to fuss with cleaning the wheels
well heated of course

roads here still glistening white from salt and brine

costs five bucks to drive to car wash. another cost consideration

I think car washes can be hard on your car though. First the scratched paint, even with latest tech, and then i wonder about my front end alignment
as the machine drags my front tires against the side of the rail and you feel the car jerk. I spend extra time trying to line up as straight as I can.
Actually....I have a forward camera I could turn on. Might try that next time.
of course I have to turn off all the proximity buzzers, they come alive when you go in a drive thru car wash.

I've been here a while on this forum now, but I thought you moved south?

 

[Sigarms]

Sidenote, went into town to get newspaper this morning.

Figure I'd waste $1.75 for an experiment at the self serve car wash, as for the last 20 years, never looked to wash my car below freezing temps.

The self service car wash actually had cones set in the bays and was closed this morning. Temp at the time per my phone as 14F.

My son forgot his second set of work clothes for the grocery store. I told her I'd take them to him when he was working his first job as I want to check out this car wash. Honestly can't say I've never been this interested in car washes my entire life

 

[Sigarms]

I've never heard of anybody around here that shut off the outside water.

We do every winter, including the sink out in the uninsulated garage.

I guess it comes down to the issue on how much you want to spend vs exactly how cold it get's in your local area (no different than the topic of this post with car washes).

I do know from my own industry that if you live in Miami, heat pumps are as rare as finding a woodpecker in a petrified forest vs a straight A/C unit with perhaps electric strip back up, yet in my market in NC, heat pumps account for about 50% outside north of Charlotte and east of Raleigh (most A/C - Gas systems due to NG lines). That said, in my direct area around my home, I'd guess heat pumps are 90% of the "market".

As far as our dogs and cats, sad to say, when it gets extremely cold (even at 20F not minus 10F), with us, those animals are inside as we don't consider them livestock but sad to say part of the "family".

 

[lman]

We do every winter, including the sink out in the garage. I guess it comes down to the issue on how much you want to spend vs exactly how cold it get's in your local area. I do know from my own industry that if you live in Miami, heat pumps are as rare as finding a woodpecker in a petrified forest vs a straight A/C unit with perhaps electric strip back up.

As far as our dogs and cats, sad to say, when it gets extremely cold (even at 20F not minus 10F), with us, those animals are inside as we don't consider them livestock.

My wife would have a few words for you if you told her that her horses were livestock. She considers them pets as are her dogs and cats. They have their own special homes. I've never heard of somebody bringing their horse into their house.

 

[K5lwq]

I've normally washed my own vehicles, except in the winter. Up North, all of us have to turn our outside water off.
coin op car washes are often a sheet of ice inside

I return to my dream of an oversized garage with a center drain floor and smooth concrete to roll around on a seat to fuss with cleaning the wheels
well heated of course

roads here still glistening white from salt and brine

costs five bucks to drive to car wash. another cost consideration

I think car washes can be hard on your car though. First the scratched paint, even with latest tech, and then i wonder about my front end alignment
as the machine drags my front tires against the side of the rail and you feel the car jerk. I spend extra time trying to line up as straight as I can.
Actually....I have a forward camera I could turn on. Might try that next time.
of course I have to turn off all the proximity buzzers, they come alive when you go in a drive thru car wash.

You do not have to worry about the alignment part. It takes a lot to knock a vehicle out of alignment. Vehicles normally get out of alignment when some yahoo at a tire shop jacks with it.

 

[Sigarms]

My wife would have a few words for you if you told her that her horses were livestock. She considers them pets as are her dogs and cats. They have their own special homes. I've never heard of somebody bringing their horse into their house.

Honestly, your wife sounds like a great woman. This is one reason why we never got into horses as we couldn't afford them

My only point is generally during winter with our frost line, our outside spigots never had a issue, but since we don't have livestock on our property nor garden in the winter months, never really had to use them during in NC from Dec to Feb.

Sad to say, we are crazy people. Any pet of ours is generally inside when it gets very cold out. Even our one "dog cat" (only cat we've ever had that gets along with our dogs inside the house) generally doesn't stay outside at night when it gets below 15F which it's been the last few weeks. Thus, why we don't worry about "outside water" during winter months.

I'm guessing taking care of livestock costs more to the end user than people taking care of livestock that live in warmer climates. That said, I do know of one guy in NC who spend a good amount of money Keep his "barn" warm for his horses and other animals.

 

[LouNY]

This is going to irritate many people; but what the heck here goes.

From what I see way to many people treat there pets like children,
that is their business but they should not be expecting everyone to feel the same.

I have a scanner in my house and the number of people that call 911 to report that someone has left a dog in a vehicle
is amazing. I'll agree in the summer with the windows rolled up it is bad, bit with the windows down they will be fine.
In the winter with the windows mostly closed a dog will be fine.

Then their are the people calling about cows being out in the weather, then the idiots thinking farmers should be heating their barns
so cows horses or pigs and chickens stay toasty warm like they do.
When it is completely unnecessary and actually unhealthy for the animals!

 

[daugen]

I've been here a while on this forum now, but I thought you moved south?

I did. Almost 7 years in Washington NC. Farm became a bit much for me by myself, then I got cancer, time to come home to PA.
farm where I grew up about five miles away.

made enough friends in NC I still drive down there three or four times a year. Really want to take Amtrak next time, get off in Wilson.

 

[Sigarms]

This is going to irritate many people; but what the heck here goes.

From what I see way to many people treat there pets like children,
that is their business but they should not be expecting everyone to feel the same.

Doesn't irritate me at all. I actually have a couple of cousins who are married up in age who don't have kids and posts about their pets as "their children" on facebook and that does irritate me as they aren't children and I keep my mouth shut LOL

It also irritates me when a vet tech calls me "daddy" when at the vets and I responded to one in a not so nice fashion that I didn't screw a dog to get this animal.

Fact is, dog or a cat is an animal, not a human being IMO.

That said, if I assume the responsibility to take in a animal as a "pet", I will still treat that pet like a part of the family in that it's my responsibility to care for that animal and provide it medical treatment when necessary.

How many people let their "pets" run free, not even thinking about spaying or neutering their pets and contribute to the amount of unwanted "domesticated pets" in the United States? One of my oldest dogs is a blue tick hound my one son found with my father on our property while practicing to hit golf balls. Reality is he most likely wouldn't survive even in one of our winters in NC at his age now. However, he became my responsibility when we decided to "bring him in" years ago. Sorry, it makes no sense to me to take in a pet and either let it roam free without any supervision if not in a fenced in area or give it some shelter from the elements.

I could raise animals for slaughter for food but don't. If I did, I would still try my best to raise them humanely as possible and then give thanks for their life so that we could eat.

Hopefully you understand my view point a little better.