Water Is On Everyone's Mind Today

 Ludlow Creek

It has been a dry summer here in upstate New York. Not as bad as many other states though. I feel bad for the people suffering in Texas. One town has issued an order of watering restrictions. That is not that unusual in times of drought I am sure. When we lived in St. Petersburg, FL, we lived with drought conditions. It wasn't a hardship for us, as at that time, we didn't even have a garden.

 Sharing!

But one of the restrictions of this town in Texas, was that watering of livestock was prohibited. How can that be? We have three horses and a large dog. They drink a lot of water. Do you think I would refuse to give them water? No way! I'd make sure they had water. If I had to buy it from the store, as much as I hate those plastic bottles, I'd do it. I'd probably go broke doing that though since they can easily drink a five gallon bucket down in a few minutes. When you bring a bucket of water into the barn the first one to drink will usually drink the whole bucket down. Then it is two more trips to the pump before you are done hauling water.

Our Pitcher Pump

There are ways to conserve water in times like this. For us, since our water has to be pumped and carried means we are used to using less water than most people. When we take showers in the summer, we use green soda bottle that sit in the sun all day. My son just took a shower and said it was hot. I use 6 bottles usually, sometimes less, but never more than that.

You may have read my post, Gray Water System For Watering The Garden, that I wrote in April of this year. I told about my husband putting a drain from the house sinks and bath tub to our raised beds. When we empty the sink or tub, the water goes somewhere that it is needed. We are very conservative with the water. Cleaning the horses' water buckets means dumping the dirty water onto our raised beds or trees.

 All that snow melts into our ground water table!

 

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
 

Basic Needs For Anyone Wherever You Live

Peaceful Forest Homestead's Forest

Someone recently asked me the question, "What is the most important things to stock up on if you are trying to prepare for future emergencies?" It is not such an easy question to give a one word answer. My answer is water, shelter, food and some kind of fuel for cooking and heating. There are other things to consider such as clothing, I mean we all need that too. But your four top basic needs are water, shelter, food and fuel.

So how do you store them for the future? I can only tell you what I do and my experience with it. As anyone knows who reads my blog regularly, we have a hand dug well out front with a pitcher pump. Even so, I store water inside the house. Something can......and has, happened to our well in the past. When you have a pump break on a holiday or week-end you need to have some stored water on hand. I hate plastic, but I have it stored in plastic bottles since that is really all that is available to me. I don't use the milk containers. What I use are some two liter soda bottles, plastic gallon jugs that had vinegar in them, and I have been known to buy Hawaiian Punch, just to get the container it comes in. I love them even though they are plastic.

Georgie Girl LOVES her water fresh & cold!

Having three horses makes it so we have to have water for them too. Each horse drinks a five gallon bucket or more almost every time we fill it. Sometimes you are just refilling it over and over till they are done. It seems like they like it best when we first bring it to them. Fresh and cold. We are fortunate enough to have a spring about two miles up the road that has a pipe and a place for people to fill water containers. So if something happened to our well or pump we have water available not far from us. It is a pretty busy spot. I have even seen people filling those water jugs that are used in offices. It runs all year long, even in the winter. It is amazing to me how many people will not worry about having water stored until there is an emergency. If your power goes out will you have running water?

Shelter is usually our homes. But what if you had to leave your home? Is there someplace you could go? In the summer, I imagine if you have some tents you could use them. Or a vehicle. I'd hate to have to sleep in my truck cab. The truck bed would be okay. For now, I plan on staying here unless our forest was burning with no hope of us surviving. Our horses though, I would want to take out of here in advance of the fire getting out of control. We have no horse trailer, though our neighbor does and if we had to borrow it or have him do that for us, he would. But he lives less than a mile away and would probably have issues with his own horses. Luckily, our climate here in upstate New York has been pretty wet most of my life. Our forest is usually not that dry.

Food, now that's the biggie! If you grow and raise as much of your own as possible you should have food stocked up in your pantry and root cellar. I wrote about the root cellar in this post, Our Root Cellar. I don't have to stress this point too much to my fellow homesteaders, as they are already doing this. The people who run to the store when there is a storm brewing know who they are. Are you doing that? Then you really need to work on this aspect of preparing. I am not trying to alarm you. Just thinking of what you will do when there is no way to get to that store for that food. If you have pets or livestock, think about them too. Having horses makes that harder for me. Too bad you can't buy canned horse food in the store!

Hauling wood in my garden cart makes it easier for me.

Fuel for us is our wood stoves for heating and cooking. We also have a propane gas stove that has absolutely no electrical parts at all. So it works as long as I have fuel in the tank. If it ran out, I would not have a problem. It wouldn't matter, as I have a wood heating stove that I cook on often. I also heat water on it daily. So no problem there. I also have a little oven that I can set on that stove for baking. Plus, I have a wood cook stove in the kitchen. So I am covered there. Plus, I live in the forest and there is always a way to get wood. What about you? What if your fuel tank ran out? Would you be able to heat and/or cook with another source? Not a pellet stove either. Do you know how to build a fire? That is one of the most important skills that everyone in your family needs to know.

These are just a few things to get you started. Start learning what to do before you need to do it. Start stocking up supplies, and I am NOT talking about hoarding, I am talking about preparation. There is a difference. Know what you need to do BEFORE you need to do it! That is the best piece of advice I can give you. Good luck!

Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

The Self-Reliant Water System

Another highly important component of the self-reliant home is water. We can live much longer without food......but not water. Look at how important water is for survival. We need it for drinking, cooking, cleaning & washing. For our pets and livestock. For our gardens and house plants. It is very important to include it in your homestead plan.

As much as water is needed........look at how brutal it can be also. Where I live, two summers ago, we had such bad flooding that so many people lost their homes, and some, their places of employment, and then some....their lives. I will always think of the two truck drivers who were driving on Interstate 88 that night, and the highway was not there. Washed away by flooding. Many people, as my father's garage was one of these, was flooded, not by living close to a river, or stream, but from water rushing off the many mountains and hills in New York state.

Think back to the bad hurricanes we have had in the last few years, including this year. Look at what the water did to New Orleans and surrounding areas, and parts of Texas and now again to Texas and the surrounding states. Not to mention the tsunami that took so many people's lives in such a brutal death. A wave that was as high as a huge mountain, while people were frolicking on the beach.

Then again, the lack of water is also something that is equally as devastating. This brings about the wild fires, that sometimes are uncontrollable. People who gave up on growing food, for lack of water. No hay for their cattle or horses, so they sold them at auctions. Prices of horses are way down at this time, but the price of hay keeps going up. Can't grow hay in a area with no water, yet can't bring the hay in at another area due to too much rain ruining the hay laying on the ground waiting to be baled.

So water is the very thing that can do you in, or help you to survive.

I live in home that has never had inside plumbing. At first I thought it would be hard for me to adapt to this lifestyle change. Wasn't hard at all. My husband turned the downstair bedroom into a bathroom, and put a cast iron bath tub in with connected drains. It had a cobbled up kitchen sink with an outside drain that just drained right out into the yard. So he dug a trench for the pipes out past the yard and connected the kitchen sink and the bathtub drains to empty through that.

Luckily we had a pitcher pump on our hand dug well that was probably the only well that was ever on this property since the house was built in the 1850s. I am still using it today as my only water supply. In the winter, contrary to popular opinions, it does not freeze up. As long as you put the handle up when you get done using it, the water will drain back down until the next use. Then you just pour a cup of hot water down to prime it and it will keep you in water all winter. We use it for all our household water and for our horses' needs as well.

At a time when everyone feels they have to trust the water from the store rather than their own supplies, I feel safe with my own water. Since I live rather secluded, surrounded by the state forest, I feel as if my water supply is superior to all others. Everyone who tastes it comments on the fresh healthy taste of our water. But if you were just now purchasing a home with a pitcher pump as we have, I would suggest you having the water tested before putting your money down on the home. Just to make sure.

I have spent more time than I like on washing my laundry by hand. We puchased a very energy efficient washing machine last March thinking we could just pour the water into it. Since it is computerized, that was not a good idea. It would just empty out the water we just carried in and had poured inside! So it is on vacation until our water system is brought inside, which is what my husband is working on right now. Not until next spring though. He had to build a battery and water pump room first, and is only now getting the walls up. Then he will put our batteries that are connected to our solar panels in there as well as the water pump which will be bringing our water into the house. I am looking forward to that!

We carry all the water into the house every morning when we do our horses' water. Then in the evening if we need more, we bring it in. During the winter I have at least two big stock pots of water on the woodstoves in case we need it. For my long hot baths that I love, I usually heat three. So I am looking forward to turning my faucets on like in any other house. Though for awhile I will probably still have to heat it on the stove. For that we will be investing in the evacuated solar tubes that are heated by the sun. Yes, I know, New York state is not known for lots of sunshine.....but I am using the sun right now to power our system.

I hope I have given you some ideas to think about. Whatever you do, never take your water for granted. It is a very precious resource.

Have a blessed homesteading day!

katlupe

"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse." Genesis 12:3