In January a thermostat mishap while out of town caused a large number of my water pipes to break. The ground is quite damp here so instead of paying a plumber extra to climb under the soggy mess my mobile home rests on I decided to wait until the weather warms and the ground dries out before taking a look myself.
The outside spigot is on the live side of the house shutoff, so I run a water hose in through a window to power the washing machine, flush the commode, bathe and whatever else I need water for.
This is a challenge for a woman whose major weakness is a hot bath.
Baths get planned in advance these days because it takes a while to heat enough water on the stove to fill my bathtub. I take sponge baths daily (a.k.a. whore baths when I was a child) but my cherished soak is now an hours-long ritual that no one is allowed to interrupt.
I use a metal bucket, a large metal bowl and my stock pot to heat water to boiling on the kitchen stove. My tub is metal, so the drain is stopped up and the boiling water is poured into the tub. It takes 2 rounds of boiling water to give a nice amount of really hot bathwater but I generally do three rounds to fill it as full as I can get. Then cold water is poured in it until it is cool enough to step into. This makes for bathwater much hotter than I can get out of my tiny water heater, which makes the work worth it.
I get out after a good long soak with the water still warm. This water is recycled to give the dogs a bath, then recycled again to flush the commode until it’s gone.
I have honestly never recycled something so much in my life!!!
I guess it is a good thing to recycle, but it has pointed out how spoiled I was by being able to turn a faucet and get instant water. It has also shown me that one does not HAVE to have running water in every room or even in a house to live well.
I must admit though—I would not like to live without a washing machine. I am too addicted to washing clothes and towels for that.
I am in hopes that the ground will dry up this month so that I can take a peek underneath without having to worry about sinking knee-deep in mud. The pipes are the pvc type so all you need are the pipes, joints and glue.
I’m not sure of the exact extent of the damage, but I should at least be able to rig up an interior spigot until I can repair it all and as for the water heater—it is not the necessity I thought it was, so I think I will look at it last to see if I need to replace the heating elements (I have it shut off at the breaker right now but am unable to check for damage until the pipes are repaired).
Yes I could probably hire it done or beg some handy male neighbor to do it, but why bother when I am perfectly capable of fixing it myself?
I am just happy and grateful that I have a water hose long enough to reach to my washing machine, and a y-connector so that I can fill up jugs and buckets while my machine does it’s thing.
I am happy that I have buckets, and the knowledge to use them.
I am downright delighted I have dish pans as well!
I wonder if people who live in tiny houses, who espouse the whole green movement—I wonder how often they wash their towels, and if that laundromat can get them clean enough?
I have an antique washstand complete with candle holders and mirror that I now keep in the kitchen for handwashing. I keep the pitcher filled with water and a bucket nearby to hold the used water, which gets used to flush the commode. Water from dishwashing gets used for the same purpose. Just the thought of a stinky commode is just gross, so I use every drop of water to keep it flushed, as well as keeping the back tank filled from the hose for the times when it needs flushing but there is no recycled water waiting to flush it.
If I lived near a place where I could readily access water either with a hose or containers, especially if that water source had a washer hooked up I wouldn’t really need running water in a place. Just a compost commode to avoid flushing the stupid thing and a drain for all of the greywater produced.
That means that I am a bit closer mentally to living in a more rustic environment than I previously thought.
Life is good…..