When I’m not playing them, my pipes sit in their case in a closet. I have a humidity meter in there, and once it drops down below about 43 percent I run the humidifier in the room and open the closet door. However, yesterday I discovered a nice trick: if I do a load of laundry and hang some of the wet clothes in the closet instead of putting them in the dryer, the closet stays humid for a long time. Yesterday afternoon I hung a pair of wet corduroy trousers and a flannel shirt in the closet and this afternoon the humidity in the closet is still at 55 percent. Normally at this time of day during a cold snap (which we’re in right now…temps not expected to get above zero Fahrenheit until next week) the humidity would be around 38 percent. The wet clothes have kept the closet well-humidified for nearly 20 hours so far, with no need to run the humidifier (or the clothes dryer for that matter).
Nice! What colour are the cord’s? 
Pat.
Dark brown, of course, but they seem to be lightening a bit as they dry out
What color is the mold that you are growing in the closet? 
Yes, mold is a big concern when keeping a small enclosed space over-damp.
djm
just put some apples in the pipecase.
Cords eh. Tricky trousers, I turned up for a gig once in same and discovered that they are rather leaky and had to improvise a popping strap!
Speaking of humidity,
I played at a session in town last night (at least -11°F outside). Humidity (I keep the gauge in front of me on the table at the bar) was 27%. Pipes were just fine. I have been using a “high tech” humidfier (Walgreen’s $15 job) at home in the pipe room which has kept the room at around 37%. I also “viced” the reed for a few hours before heading to the pub.
Blog story here:
http://irishfireside.wordpress.com/
t
Myself, I’ve just given up on the pipes for the week. -10 right now and dropping, 31% RH inside and dropping. With normal winter temps and as needed light humidifying, the apartment is 35-40% which my pipes can deal with. But I live in a 180 year old house with 10’ ceilings so the heating is coming on way to often this week! Time to put in some time on the flute…or start to work on reedmaking and learn to make a 25% RH reed! Maybe just in time for spring 
this week very vary with weather… first days +5 and heavy rain .. now -20 below zero.Even there’s quite dry inside house pipes doing well, regs just need to more pressure than usually to keep going well.
glad youre still hanging around here Corin.
Maybe we can learn the 25% reeds together!
I still haven’t traveled the dark murky paths of reedmaking yet…
What with Bruce so closeby & all…
Rich