A Great Idea!

Sometimes you come across a great idea you wished you thought of. This is one of those.

Anyone that keeps animals outdoors in the northern portion of the hemisphere, runs into the same problem during winter, how to keep their drinking water from freezing. It's very important but can also be very dangerous. When I was growing up, we had a barn burn down because a cow manage to pull a water heater out of a tank and onto the ground where it caught fire. So it's not something to be taken lightly.




Water heaters can be very expensive even for small animals. And, if your animals aren't the brightest, like my beloved chickens, they sometimes manage to unhook their heaters by flying down on top of them and separating the connection. I swear, sometimes I think they look for ways to off themselves, God love them, they just aren't that bright!

When this even happens, you end up with a solid block of ice that has to be thawed for several hours and you end up putting out some water that you know will be frozen in the matter of hours.

 
What if there was a cheap alternative that, in addition to being free, also had the benefit of being a "green" project, i.e. recycling something you already have on hand? Well, this is it and I'm going to tell you from experience it works and is very safe.








This homemade water is created out of your standard holiday tin that you probably received at Christmas. A hole is drilled in the side and a light hub is threaded through. Attach a lightbulb and plug and you are in business. Isn't this genius? Someone in my niece's 4H club makes these and sells them to profit the club. My mother had this for many years and sent it out to me when I was telling her about the silly girls cutting off their water supply.

 

I can tell you that at first I was concerned that it could be a fire hazard, but after using it for several weeks, I've run into no problems. Add on to that the hottest it will ever become is the temperature of the light bulb so there shouldn't be too much of a concern. It works just as good as those expensive heaters as well.