Can we live without running water for a year??

how far are you from wisconsin border say lake geneva?

Ha Ha..........the air we breath...........!

We only do dishes once a day, don't use our water for laundry, and agree with GrammasCabin that a 2 gallon solar shower (it says 5 on the bag, but you're only supposed to fill to the half-way point) is actually too much. Only my nine year old with her long hair actually uses and entire shower bag. And sometimes part of another. Everyone else uses about half of a bag.

If we average 15 gallons a day for our family of four, we're splurging. Though I'll confess: I look forward to the day we get plumbed in and I can have a nice, wasteful, pressurized shower!!

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

It's the EPA, not the IRS. They're not looking at penalizing collection, but runoff. Lots of lawn and farm chemicals and manure get washed into the rivers.

We went without water for a couple of winters and have young kids (7 & 2 then). Less hassle for the kids than for us. Hot showers are one of those luxuries of the modern world I really love.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Really enjoying this thread. Up until 5 yrs ago there was no water to this house. In the winter when the creek froze baths were in the sauna and there is always plenty of snow to thaw at the wood stove.

A tank load plus standing there for an hour while the tank fills up...

I had to haul water from town for a year in Maine. Not only that, but we had to backpack in a mile for 3 months since the road was being graded for our truck. We used soda bottles and everyone including the kids would load up with water in their backpacks-adults would carry 6-8 bottles and kids would carry 2-4 bottles depending on their ages. Kids ages ranged from 13-1.5. The youngest was carried on my husbands back along with a couple bottles of water. I was in the best shape of my life, let me tell you. Laundry was done in a double laundry tub with a wringer. I washed with regular detergent and a scrub brush on jeans and we had one of those quick wash plungers. They work very well. I think doing it this way actually got the clothes cleaner. It takes more time, but in hindsight, that summer was very enjoyable.

An hour?!?
We could fill 1000 gallons (for $3) at the city's stand-pipe. The same one the fire dept' uses to refill. It took less than 10 minutes.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I wouldn't worry about the children...youngsters are much more adaptable to new circumstances and would probably think it was all an adventure at first. It's us old timers that say "oh no, what will I do now?"

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Lori

When our spring encounters problems (every few years) I have to drive to town and impose on one of my customers or friends who has 'city water'. Using their garden hose it takes easily 45 minutes to an hour to fill 300 gallons. No quick fill available here. I have to be cautious when doing this as the village (city water) uses wells and during dry spells filling up large containers with water is looked down upon. I am still grateful for the water nonetheless.

I used to have one of those washers !!!! It was green and my parents got it for meY ($20 at a yard sale) because I had just had my oldest daughter !! I loved that washer !! I have been looking at a wonder washer...do these work well ?

My grandmother didn't have indoor plumbing until she was married (1940s). The majority of Americans live like royalty compared to the recent past generations.

My mother in law's neighborhood got running water her Junior year of high school.
In 1972.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

We lived 20 years in Colorado with out 'running water'.
Or the 'running water' that most people think about..

We had a 1000 gallon plastic tank we sunk in the ground and had a 200 gallon plastic tank for either the pickup or a small trailer. Went to town and filled it up for next to nothing...like $1.00 for 200 gallon and came home and dumped it into the 1000 gallon tank.

It was hooked to a rv water pump which was hooked to a small solar panel.

You turn the faucet on inside and .....water!

I doubt its illegal anyplace in the country to do it.

The tax would be for rain water run off, not collection. Maybe you could deduct what you collect from the tax bill. I dont understand why cities and towns do not collect all that rain water, filter it, and use it as needed for washing streets and other public needs. Why waste it and then pay tons of money to dispose of it.

I don't see why not having running water would be considered child abuse, but you have to be super careful these days, the government has way too much power, thinks that they are morally superior, and they feel they have the right to intrude on citizens private lives.

Some freaks out there think it is child abuse if a kid doesnt have a bedroom all to themselves and their own personal tv.

I have been washing in a bucket filled with one gallon of water.....it works, it is better then a regular shower. I use one gallon of water to wash, then I turn the shower on to quickly rinse. Eventually I want to figure out how to rinse with the bucket. I am thinking a plastic watering can from a garden might do the trick. Any Ideas?

I am going to start saving my water from washing my dishes, and the water wasted while I am waiting for the hot water to kick in, and use that water to flush my toilet. I tried it tonight and I was able to flush my toilet with less then a gallon of water.

If I had a tub I would wask my clothes in my tub. I just have a stand up shower.
The problem is finding a clothes wringer.....those things are way to expensive to buy new.
lehmans sells them for over $150, they are out of their minds with that price. I looked for second hand ones but they are ether priced as antiques or they are not in working order.
Any suggestion on finding a wringer at a decent price?

You could buy a new 2 gallon sprayer tank, the kind for you pump up for spraying fruit trees or plants, to use for rinsing off when you bath. This would also be good for rinsing the dishes. You could probably even do like we did in girl scouts as kids, the old milk jug with small holes drilled in the screw on cap. Lather up then turn the jug upside down and rinse under the "Shower'.

For wringing out small things like socks and under garments get a "salad spinner", put wet clothes in a few at a time and spin out the extra water.

How about a 5 gallon insulated drink cooler with pvc pipe fitted into the lower part of the cooler (where the spigot is located) to hold your shower water. You could buy a hand held shower head unit with a shut off valve and fit it to the pipe coming out from the cooler to have a gravity fed shower. Mount a sturdy shelf high enough up on the wall to hold the cooler. Stand in a wash tub to catch the used water. You could even rig a shower curtain around the tub to contain the water, like the ones they used around claw foot tubs.

Patrice thank you for the tips. I am going to try the milk jug tip from the girlscouts. The cooler tip is good, I might use that in the future, but right now my bathroom is way to small for a cooler.

So many thoughts on this good thread! The Humanure Book will tell all you need to know about sawdust toilets. We used one for years. My husband built a nice sturdy box for the buckets, a box for the sawdust (looked like the water tank on back of toilets) that had a hinged lid and a scoop in it. It held enough sawdust for several days for the two of us. We emptied the buckets when they got a little over half deep because they got heavy. He put a nice toilet seat and stained the whole thing...it looked pretty nice!

I also went without running water on several occasions. One thing that will make you feel less deprived is if you can have a hot shower.
http://www.zodi.com/
I bought one of these things and it was great. It uses small propane tanks, pumps water from a bucket thru heated copper coils and comes out hot out of a shower nozzle. I put a large hook up in my shower and hung the apparatus from it, had the bucket full of water on top of the toilet, and had hot showers in my bathtub as often as I liked. It felt like a luxury sometimes!

We also had a number of sturdy 5 gallon water containers with spigots that we got at Emergency Essentials
http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_...%20Water%20Jug

We kept one on the kitchen counter next to the sink for handwashing, rinsing dishes, etc. They are very sturdy and the spigots control your use. We never had any problems with leaking and we used them for years, and still have them. We also used a Big Berkey water filter for any questionable water.

For clothes, we initially went to the laundry mat but since it was 35 miles away that got old. It was worth hauling the water and adding it manually to the washer. Now the front loaders use only small amounts of water, as little as 7 gallons per cycle I believe, and hang out the clothes or dry on racks inside.

You can take a quick shower with the sport bottles from drinking water, the ones with the squirt top. I found 4 of them filled with warm water would give a pretty good shower. I got in my tub, wet down with one, then washed hair and soaped body, and rinsed with the rest. I felt really clean and refreshed with very little water. It beat the bird bath method.

For dishes, I heated water till very hot on the stove, poured it into sink with already stacked dishes and soap. Let soak until cool enough to wash, then put in next sink with cold water to rinse.

You do learn where you water is going, and how to be careful with it. Even now that I have running water, I only flush when it really needs it, I turn off water while brushing teeth, and other activities such as dishwashing, etc.

It takes a bit of getting use to, but with a little practice and some allowances for a few creature comforts like washing machine and hot showers, you will hardly notice it. Have fun and let us know how it goes.

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Take your time, or someone else will.