iggy
05-24-2013, 01:02 PM
For our June RS Evening Meeting we are going to discuss Water storage for the home and Emergency Car Kits - what is in yours?
I have been tasked with the water storage. Me ~ who has three 55 gallon blue barrels sitting outside of my shed ~ empty. I have 4 gallons on the floor of my coat closet and 6 gallons on the floor of my master bedroom closet and 2.5 cases of 16 oz. bottles in the closet of my guest bedroom.
My shed intimidates me. It is not finished, i.e. no insulation and interior walls. The big, black, shiny spiders have taken it over. Did I mention they are BIG and SHINY?? Before the spiders took over, I was able to hang two 2 bulb shop lights. Though I didn't get one of the bulbs in securely enough and that fixture won't light. I am NOT, repeat NOT, climbing up and fixing it. That is where the Patriarch of the Spiders lives, thrives, holds court and snarls and growls at me whenever I even open the door. {{s h u d d e r}}
There is no way I am ever going to use this shed to store food. It will be used to store tools: garden & power; extra plastic totes (empty) and water. Water to drink and water to flush the toilet with, and wash with.
When we lived in Casa Grande AZ, we frequently had our water shut off. The local water company kept turning ours off instead of the meth heads next to us!! At that time we had plenty of drinking water. 48 gallons jugs and eight cases of 24 count 16oz bottles. There was NO way I was using any of that water to flush the toilet with. Now with two people on diuretics there is a lot of flushing going on. The first time it happened, I went across the road to the neighbor and she let me fill up 6 empty gallon jugs at her outside tap.
I only use liquid laundry detergent - I had 12 jugs sitting on the floor of my laundry room waiting for me to remove the spouts and totally empty them of detergent. After the water was turned back on, I proceeded to do that. Our of the 12 jugs I got a total of 1 3/4 cups of detergent! I then made a snap decision to fill those jugs with water, and store them in the laundry room for the next time the water got shut off for longer than an hour. Didn't even attempt to rinse them out. Why? The soap will clean the toilet as well as flush it. As for washing hands, or the body it works fine. Though you will have to use the precious drinking water to rinse with. For the 4 more years we lived there, our water was turned off 6 more times. The last was caused by the water company's pipes leaking! Over the years, the 12 jugs increased as I emptied new ones. When we moved, I emptied the jugs out in the tub, toilet and sinks and bagged the bottles for recycling.
Haven't yet done that here. Fill the empty jugs with water. Haven't been without water - yet. But washing & flushing water is a concern during emergencies. Little emergencies like the water being turned off so the water company can work on the lines, or when the line springs a leak! As well as BIG emergencies.
One of the sisters in our Evening Meeting Committee told of a sister she knew who canned water. Rather than let her canning jars sit empty, she filled them with water and canned them. To me that is a total waste of canning lids and the cost of electricity to do the water bath. NOW if you are canning other foods and have an empty space or two- then it makes sense.
I would like to bring up learning to cook with less tap/bottled water and utilizing the liquid from the canned foods. Also that it is not necessary to use as much water to cook pasta and raw potatoes in. During my entire adult life since I left home, my range tops have been funky. Only one or two burners that worked and those were the small burners, or too small for stock pots or sauce pans larger than 2 quarts. So I learned 2 cups of dry pasta cooks up fine and dandy in a 1 quart sauce pan. I made alfredo sauce from scratch - so I would save the pasta water and use that instead of clean water.
In Casa Grande, our tap water was undrinkable, hence the bottled water. Even filtering it with a Brita system didn't improve the flavor by much but enough where I could cook with it. It was the hardest thing for me to use my store bought bottled water to make gravy, soups, & sauces with. Also we were concerned about water usage when there would be no replacing that water for days, weeks or months. As I was dumping the liquid from a can of green beans down the drain, I realized that it could have easily been used to make the gravy for our dinner. Or add more water to it to equal 2 cups for the instant mashed potatoes, or add it to the water to boil the pasta in, then save the pasta water and make gravy.
I will be demonstrating how to flush the toilet with just two quarts of water. Yep, we are going to be going into the bathroom for that one. Would love to demonstrate how to shampoo-rinse but NOT condition any length of hair with one to two quarts of water. How to bathe with just two cups of water, from your face as far down as possible, from your feet as far up as possible, and then do possible.
Does anyone have any other water usage saver in the home ideas?
I have been tasked with the water storage. Me ~ who has three 55 gallon blue barrels sitting outside of my shed ~ empty. I have 4 gallons on the floor of my coat closet and 6 gallons on the floor of my master bedroom closet and 2.5 cases of 16 oz. bottles in the closet of my guest bedroom.
My shed intimidates me. It is not finished, i.e. no insulation and interior walls. The big, black, shiny spiders have taken it over. Did I mention they are BIG and SHINY?? Before the spiders took over, I was able to hang two 2 bulb shop lights. Though I didn't get one of the bulbs in securely enough and that fixture won't light. I am NOT, repeat NOT, climbing up and fixing it. That is where the Patriarch of the Spiders lives, thrives, holds court and snarls and growls at me whenever I even open the door. {{s h u d d e r}}
There is no way I am ever going to use this shed to store food. It will be used to store tools: garden & power; extra plastic totes (empty) and water. Water to drink and water to flush the toilet with, and wash with.
When we lived in Casa Grande AZ, we frequently had our water shut off. The local water company kept turning ours off instead of the meth heads next to us!! At that time we had plenty of drinking water. 48 gallons jugs and eight cases of 24 count 16oz bottles. There was NO way I was using any of that water to flush the toilet with. Now with two people on diuretics there is a lot of flushing going on. The first time it happened, I went across the road to the neighbor and she let me fill up 6 empty gallon jugs at her outside tap.
I only use liquid laundry detergent - I had 12 jugs sitting on the floor of my laundry room waiting for me to remove the spouts and totally empty them of detergent. After the water was turned back on, I proceeded to do that. Our of the 12 jugs I got a total of 1 3/4 cups of detergent! I then made a snap decision to fill those jugs with water, and store them in the laundry room for the next time the water got shut off for longer than an hour. Didn't even attempt to rinse them out. Why? The soap will clean the toilet as well as flush it. As for washing hands, or the body it works fine. Though you will have to use the precious drinking water to rinse with. For the 4 more years we lived there, our water was turned off 6 more times. The last was caused by the water company's pipes leaking! Over the years, the 12 jugs increased as I emptied new ones. When we moved, I emptied the jugs out in the tub, toilet and sinks and bagged the bottles for recycling.
Haven't yet done that here. Fill the empty jugs with water. Haven't been without water - yet. But washing & flushing water is a concern during emergencies. Little emergencies like the water being turned off so the water company can work on the lines, or when the line springs a leak! As well as BIG emergencies.
One of the sisters in our Evening Meeting Committee told of a sister she knew who canned water. Rather than let her canning jars sit empty, she filled them with water and canned them. To me that is a total waste of canning lids and the cost of electricity to do the water bath. NOW if you are canning other foods and have an empty space or two- then it makes sense.
I would like to bring up learning to cook with less tap/bottled water and utilizing the liquid from the canned foods. Also that it is not necessary to use as much water to cook pasta and raw potatoes in. During my entire adult life since I left home, my range tops have been funky. Only one or two burners that worked and those were the small burners, or too small for stock pots or sauce pans larger than 2 quarts. So I learned 2 cups of dry pasta cooks up fine and dandy in a 1 quart sauce pan. I made alfredo sauce from scratch - so I would save the pasta water and use that instead of clean water.
In Casa Grande, our tap water was undrinkable, hence the bottled water. Even filtering it with a Brita system didn't improve the flavor by much but enough where I could cook with it. It was the hardest thing for me to use my store bought bottled water to make gravy, soups, & sauces with. Also we were concerned about water usage when there would be no replacing that water for days, weeks or months. As I was dumping the liquid from a can of green beans down the drain, I realized that it could have easily been used to make the gravy for our dinner. Or add more water to it to equal 2 cups for the instant mashed potatoes, or add it to the water to boil the pasta in, then save the pasta water and make gravy.
I will be demonstrating how to flush the toilet with just two quarts of water. Yep, we are going to be going into the bathroom for that one. Would love to demonstrate how to shampoo-rinse but NOT condition any length of hair with one to two quarts of water. How to bathe with just two cups of water, from your face as far down as possible, from your feet as far up as possible, and then do possible.
Does anyone have any other water usage saver in the home ideas?