Read the whole litany of replies to your
troubles. I like your idea of using
a tarp over a few saw horses, but a
different heat source. How about a
torpedo heater blowing its warmth into
the tent. These things put out tons
of heat. And, you could probably rent
one at a rental place (I know, 30
miles away) if you don't have one or
can't borrow one. I just used one
in a garage where we were repairing the
door opener. It was about 30
degrees outside .... not as cold at it
is today in the mid west. But, after
about an hour or so, we had to turn off
the heater and remove our jackets.
BTW, it was a 50K BTU unit.

FragileWarrior wrote:
Bear with me here, I might have some of the terminology wrong:

I water my horses from an outside well that's powered by an electric pump
down in the well. The "pump" that's frozen is the pump unit that's at
ground level, not the electric one down in the well. At least I HOPE it's
not the one down in the well...

Normally, when using the water, I hook up the hose to the ground level
"pump" (I don't know what else to call this part), lift the handle up and
then flip the switch to start the electric pump and pump the water.
After I'm done filling the troughs, I put the "pump" handle down and shut
off the electric.

Yesterday, there was an ice block in the hose so I shut off the electric,
detached the hose BUT I FORGOT TO PUT THE PUMP HANDLE DOWN. An hour
later, when I got back with the thawed hose, everything at the "pump" was
frozen solid. The handle is frozen in the up position and won't budge.
No water will come out when the electric pump is on.

I did try to thaw the ground level pump with a small propane torch for
almost an 45 minutes. I thought the only block must be in the top of the
ground level pump since no water would have been pushing upward from the
well without the electric running, right? But I had no luck. It did
cross my mind that parts that weren't receiving direct heat were
refreezing faster than I could keep them thawed. What do I need to do to
thaw this out? We're due to be in a deep freeze here for another week at
least. Do I need to call in professional help? Who do I call? A
plumber?

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Giselle (obviously a city girl gone bad)