We use a gravity system to feed wash water into the house from a tank on the hill.  The tank is filled by a pump in the creek, turned on manually as needed.

The line between the creek and the tank isn't buried, so we can only fill the tank during relatively warm weather.  Every winter, we hit a period like this recent spell when we can't fill the tank for weeks at a time and water levels in the tank get very low.  Every winter, we resolve to keep the tank at least halfway filled to prevent the problem.  And each summer and fall, we let down our guard and forget.

This year, we've decided to try a different method.  Every Monday, if the line is thawed, we'll top off the tank.  Having a weekly system seems more likely to succeed than depending on one of us noticing the tank is below halfway full.

Our new method will have to wait until a warm spell finally lets the pump run, though.  In the meantime, the tank is getting lower and lower, and it looks like we might actually run out of wash water this year.  Luckily, we can pump drinking water from the well to fill in the gap, if necessary, but that will bypass Mark's new delight --- the hot water heater.  I guess that's an incentive to stay more on top of the tank-filling protocol.