By 'eck it's taters!

[John Liddle]

All this cold weather has some practical downsides - I am in the process of renovating the spiral stairs I pictured a little while ago and when it came to making the first mix of lime mortar, I discovered that despite being in the garage, the damn sand had frozen solid!

I guess the water content is quite high since the sand is sold by weight and wet sand weighs considerably heavier than dry.

So now SWMBO has to put up with bags of sand by the Rayburn in the kitchen so that it is ready for use.

[Trev B]

It is quite amazing just how much water there is in a bag of sand, especially red sand

[ST-EOS]

On a similar note, I'd taken the wall mounted hosepipe and reel off the house wall prior to the recent cold weather and put it in the garage.
This afternoon I decide to give car a wash, replaced the hose onto its mounting, connected to the tap, you've guessed it the residual water in the hose had frozen! a garden trug with hot water cured the problem. I eventually managed to give the car a quick wash.
I hope you manage to thaw out you sand John