Winter & Water

It’s 16-degrees F (-8 C) outside in the Saturday morning woods as I type this post. So. In other words. It’s a dash cold out. We have a light skiff of snow on the ground that fell a couple of days ago and given the low temps has stuck around.

I forgot to jot it down in what I call the Empty Mountain Almanac - which is small notebook I like to keep track of a number of things in, such as: weather, temperatures, rain fall amounts, sunrise & sunset times here in the canyon, propane usage, compost toilet system notes, etc. - but a couple of weeks or so ago, I made the call to bring our potable water jugs inside the cabin where they will now remain until the spring, when it returns to being warm enough to store them outside without freezing. And just this past week, on Tuesday November 25, after looking at the upcoming weather forecast, we made the call to empty two of our three rain catchment barrels.

Given that both 55-gallon barrels were nearly full, we knew we’d likely have a little more time before we risked having trouble getting the water out due to freezing, but we didn’t want to take any chances. We figured it was better to be ahead of the game, rather than possibly wait too late and then have the barrel water frozen until spring, which could also potentially crack the barrels. We chose to leave our third barrel full, however, as an experiment. The barrel that collects rain off of the shower house is still filled with water. We thought we might be able to get one more shower run from it before we need to drain it. We’ll see. Most often, here at EM, Mike and I are once-a-week shower people. And since using the shower now requires more work and effort in getting the shower going, given the freezing temps, we tend to arrange it so that we’re both taking a shower back to back, versus on our own time schedule.

Once the temps start dipping down towards freezing, we have to bring both the water pump and the battery that runs the pump inside the cabin so they don’t freeze. When it’s not winter, we can leave them both outside and hooked up. In the colder months, we also have to drain the system when we’re done showering, so that water doesn’t freeze inside the hot water unit or the hose tube that runs from the barrel through the unit to the shower head. It’s not a huge process to set it up and dismantle it, but it does make showering more of an event. We are also now using a small portable propane heater inside the shower house to help keep it warmer when we’re getting in and out.

Since we will soon be emptying that barrel as well, we are in a rare window of time right now when we aren’t in water conservation mode. This means that we can just leave the shower running the whole time we’re in there, versus turning off the water in between soaping up and rinsing off, which is our habit and way the rest of the year. We’re still getting a sense for how much water we need and how much we can expect to collect. And then, of course, what falls from the sky is variable and unpredictable. So we’re still learning all the ins and outs when it comes to subsisting off of the water we collect.

I purchased 4 new buckets this past week, ahead of emptying the two barrels that collect rain water from our cabin’s porch roof. We filled those and found a place to store them under the stairs to the loft. With how small our cabin is, anything that is stored inside must have use or purpose. We simply don’t have room for anything that isn’t necessary or adds value to the space. And while I could see our cabin being a little bit bigger, I’m very happy and content to live in the small. It codifies what matters most. It naturally promotes a person to think mindfully about what they have in their dwelling place, and actively discourages clutter or holding onto anything unneeded or extra.

So right now, there are three potable water jugs filled with water I haul from town for the purposes of drinking & cooking, each storing 6 or 7 gallons, along with 4 five-gallon buckets filled with rain water under our stairs, which we use for washing hands & dishes. Once we empty the shower barrel, we will simply use one of the buckets of water to run the shower off of. So that will become part of the set up process soon: hauling the bucket out to the shower house. We then simply stick the hose right in the bucket and pump the water up from there. Since we used to run the shower from a 5-gallon bucket before we had the barrel, I know that both of us can shower using up a little less than 5-gallons worth of water. Given that most of the water is used to wash my long hair, I think that’s pretty good.

In addition to the water mentioned above, we have the bucket that our foot pump sink operates off of, which I fill up every 2-3 days, a backup bucket that sits by the woodstove that I keep full in order to add to the pump sink, and another 6-7 gallon potable jug that I stash in the kitchen area until it’s empty and I can store it back outside. Oh. And we have a 6-gallon water cube that we have a USB pump connected to, which is what we use for dispensing potable water. And 4 one-gallon jugs under the table which serves as our cooking area until we build out our kitchen. So basically what I’m saying is, since it’s coming up on winter and all of our water needs to be stored inside, it’s us and a gaggle of water containers keeping company with each other right now.

I did the maths (as the British say). We have a 30-gallon capacity of washing water stored in buckets and a 38-gallon potable water storage capacity in an assortment of jugs taking up residence inside our cabin right now. It sounds like a lot when I tally it up, but surprisingly I’ve been able to find locations for all of it so that none of it feels in the way, which is important to me. I’m someone who likes a very neat, well-organized, and tidy dwelling space. I like to keep things clean and simple and uncluttered. So it feels like a pretty big win to have so much water inside our 12X14 cabin right now and not feel cramped for space because of it.

Next winter we already have an upgrade plan that involves a clever way Mike came up with to keep at least one water barrel from freezing, maybe two. I won’t go into it all now, but potentially this winter will be the only one where we’ll need to store this amount of water inside our cabin. I will be interested to see how it goes this coming winter. My plan is to simply scale up my water hauling from town, which I do once a week on Mondays. So instead of hauling just our potable water, I will now also be hauling our washing water too (which I tend to do solo since Mike doesn’t usually come to town with me). I’m really not concerned about the extra work. I don’t think it will add all that much, though it will be winter, which means I will soon be carrying the water jugs & now buckets through the snow from the spigot I use to my car. To help a gal out, Mike suggested we get a longer potable water hose, which is a ripe good idea. That way I can attach the hose and leave the jugs & buckets right by the car to fill. So I plan to get a longer hose next week.

We may try to melt snow down too, which we’ve done in the past. Every little bit of snow we can make use of for the purposes of washing would be helpful, but we’ve learned it’s not a very efficient way to get water overall, especially when considering how small our place is. Melting snow has a cooling effect on the cabin given our small footprint. And the fires we light in the wood stove are small (2 or 3 a day when it’s cold out), as it’s way easy to over-heat the place. Our place isn’t big enough to require keeping a fire going all day. A 5-gallon bucket full of snow yields about a third of a bucket of actual water once it melts, and it takes a while for it to melt. So part of me thinks it’s easier and less time consuming just to haul it from town. I like the idea of using snow for water instead of hauling it from town, and it feels more in line with the spirit of what we’re doing out here, but I’m nothing if not practical. And right now it feels more practical to haul it vs melt it. But we’ll see how it goes and flows. Who knows. Maybe I’ll get into the swing of melting it just for the art of doing it.