Off Grid Cabins, Winter, Freezing Temperatures, On Site Food Storage

[considerations]

I have 2 40 gallon "sheep's troughs". 10' of hose, and a yard hydrant.  The yard hydrant does not freeze, the hose gets disconnected and drained after each use.  When one trough gets about half full of ice, I flip it upside down and start using the other one.  Generally, by the time the ice has filled the second trough 1/2 way, it has fallen out of the the first one, and I start over. 

The size of the trough and the half full rule just speaks to what I can flip by myself. 

I've only had one time in 6 years when the weather stayed so cold that this didn't work.  You may be somewhere colder than Western Washington state, could lift more, etc, etc.

Yard hydrants work well here.  They are basically faucets that stick up out of the ground on top of a pipe that is connected to the water supply.  When they are turned off and the hose disconnected, the water falls back down the pipe to the level of the supply line.  If the supply line is below the frost line, the water supply won't freeze up.   

For me, so far, so good.