Water is Life
I’m pretty sure I will keep using this blog post title at least once a year. Because, well, water is life. Sometimes a gal just needs to call a thing what it is.
We are more acutely aware of the reality of how water is life living how we do, off-grid and without running water amid the woods of the Rocky Mountains in western Montana. We collect rain water for the purposes of washing hands & dishes, taking showers, and cleaning out the loo buckets as part of our compost toilet system and we haul water from town for cooking & drinking. But our hauling water days may soon be coming to an end.
We recently purchased two used water cubes that were on sale for a good price from a man who lived 2.5 hours away. Each cube stores 275 gallons. Currently, and for the past two years, we’ve been operating with three 55 gallon barrels, for a total of 165 gallons of water storage. So once we get these two new cubes up and rolling we’ll be upping our capacity substantially. Our plan is to purchase a tabletop filter we have our eye on and then filter the rain water we collect for cooking & drinking, which would then bring to an end our need to haul potable water from town. We don’t collect enough water to meet all of our water needs at present, so these two new cubes will potentially be a bit of a game changer.
But it will be a little while yet before we get them hooked up and ready to start collecting. Mike needs to install the gutter system on our new sauna building and make platforms to set the cubes on. He also plans to make insulated boxes around each cube in hopes of being able to store water in them through next winter without it freezing. On Monday he went to prep the ground where the cube platforms will go and discovered a large buried stump in the way. Every homeowner or landowner is familiar with this scenario: you go to do a project and another unexpected project presents itself that needs tending to first. And then there you are doing an unplanned project in order to get to the project you had planned. We’ve all been there. He spent Monday digging all around the stump to uncover it and he spent yesterday chainsawing it out in large sections. Now we have a giant hole where the stump used to be. Along with quite a big mess. But that’s how projects go. First the necessary mess gets made. Then the clean up happens after the project is completed.
Side note: I don’t mind telling you it’s a challenge and a practice for me to give Mike the space he needs to make a mess. But it’s something I’ve been actively and intentionally working on for a number of years now. He and I are polar opposites when it comes to spacial arrangement, usage of items, and placement preferences of objects, things & stuff. I am extremely organized and value keeping things clean, tidy & uncluttered. Mike’s work area (and his truck and his side of the bed sometimes) looks like a disaster zone. There are tools and building materials and handfuls of screws and nails everywhere. To the untrained eye it appears as though there is no rhyme or reason. But it’s how he works and it works for him. And he’s hella good at what he does. It’s been important for me (and for him!) to practice giving the guy his space and not keep harping on him to clean up. I mean for Pete’s sake. He’s out there working hard and making things happen. The least I can do is leave him to his process. I certainly wouldn’t want him inside the cabin micromanaging me while I was cooking.
Okay. Back to the water.
Yesterday we spent time making a couple of small upgrades to our current rain water catchment system. Two of our three barrels collect water from the roof of our covered front porch and our third barrel collects water off the showerhouse. Yesterday Mike installed spigots at the bottom of each of the barrels, which took a little bit of doing considering one of the barrels was quite full of water. To get the water out of the barrels we’ve been using a hand siphon pump, which works great. But it will be nice to have quick access to the water to fill buckets up now by using the spigot instead. He also added a couple of improvements to our filtration system to help keep debris, pollen & bugs from getting into the barrels. As has been and continues to be the case for us, we are taking small steps to improve and upgrade our living systems here at Empty Mountain when it’s time and as we’re able.
We’re now at the time of year when we can store water outside without the risk of it freezing. Even though it’s still often well below freezing at night and in the morning, it’s been warming up during the day. It’s nice to have a little more room in the cabin without all of the buckets and jugs of water around, though they actually fit quite well under our loft stairs and were out of the way for the most part. Next winter we’re hoping we’ll have the storage cubes filled and flowing and we’ll just filter potable water from them as needed. But we’ll see what happens.
Yesterday too I decided to set up our outdoor handwashing station and outdoor drinking water dispenser. During the time of year when the temperature supports it, it’s nice to have both washing up & drinking water, both for us and others that visit, more easily accessible outside of our little cabin. Especially given how much time we spend outside. I also set up my outside dishwashing area, which I enjoy so so much. In our experience, we can store water outside and have our water stations set up 5 or 6 months of the year. Sometimes a little longer depending, of course, on the weather. We’re not there quite yet though on being able to keep our shower unit and hoses hooked up or get the handwashing sink in the outhouse going, as both would freeze over night which isn’t good for them given the mechanisms involved and the water pumps. Maybe in another 2 or 3 weeks.