Bath in a Bucket

How much water does your family or you use in a week?  How about in one day?  Have you ever thought about reusing some of your water for different jobs?  If you could use the same water for three different jobs would it be worth it? 

In this day and age we now not only have water meters on our houses but we also are buying water to drink.  In the rural areas where there are wells or dugouts the amount of water is not measured but most of these people understand the need to conserve water.  Most of them know how to survive without running water.  If you turned on the tap and found no water, would you know what to do?  Are you prepared for a situation like this?

In the days of old, you would find a barrel or perhaps two somewhere in the house full of water.  This water was either from an outside well, or a creek or perhaps from the rain gutters running along the roof of the house into a barrel outside.  In the wintertime, snow was melted and then the resulting water added to the barrel and then more snow put on the stove to melt.

Here are a few things that you can do to conserve on water.  Have three barrels situated close to the bathroom or your laundry room.  One barrel is for toilet flushes, and this does not mean for the pee times just for the bowel movements.  One barrel is for collecting water for your washing, as in used bath water or dish rinsing water.  The last barrel is for clean water to be used for when you have no running water.  It will have to be changed maybe once a week so that the water does not take on a stale taste.  But you can integrate it into your water conservation system.

“Bath in a bucket” which is about 2 gallons of warm water used in somewhat similar to a sponge bath.  You take the water to the bathroom, enter tub area, and wash your hair and body over a bucket.  First wetting your hair over an empty bucket, then putting in shampoo, rinse and finish with washing and rinsing the rest of your body.  Then all the water is scooped up and put into the washing machine or set aside somewhere to be used to flush the toilet.  If you should have running water then take a bucket with you to the tub and proceed as above but keeping everything to a minimum with usage.

You can reuse your dishwater (soapy part) to flush the toilet and your dish rinse water can be collected to add to your clothes washing water.  After your clothes have finished the washing cycle you can pump the water into your toilet-flushing barrel and with the rinse water from the washing machine you can add that to your clothes-washing barrel.

All of the above requires time and the willingness to go the extra mile to conserve water.  Everyone is accountable now for how much water he or she is using because with the latest statistics we will soon run short of water.  The generations to follow will need to know what to do during a water shortage.  Does your following generation know what to do?

The above methods have been tried and found very “doable”.  I have had the experience of no running water for over 2 years in which water was hauled from a local dugout and pumped the water into barrels in the house.  Just after I wrote this article we found that the water system into the house was in failure mode.  So until we figure out what has happened, which at the moment of guessing is that the intake hose in the dugout is in the mud and has to be fixed.  So we will be bucket bathing for a bit.  Running water should never be taken for granted. 

 

http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/

www.monolake.org/waterconservation/

Family Death

Everyone handles death of a sibling or parent differently because our emotions are not the same.  It also depends on how old a person is and where they are in their pathway of life as in married, family, satisfied job, as well as how close was their connection with the person who died. 

The pain is intense it feels as if someone shoved a hand down your throat and ripped your heart out without giving you any knock-out gas or something to dull the pain first.  You want to scream at somebody, and then cry until your whole body hurts.  Each memory that you encounter brings a new flood of tears and the knowledge that you will not be able to make any new memories with this sibling/parent that has gone away.  Most of the time it feels like you are dreaming and will soon wake up.  You feel deserted, that death has cheated you on the chance to clear up any bad feelings that was between you and the deceased.  Sometimes you even feel that it should have been you instead of the loved one that died.  This brings God into the picture and you question His decision to take this person out of your life.  What was the purpose?

Friends, acquaintances and family all try to help you through the grief but in truth you are the only person that can make this journey.  As other members of the family must make their own way through the grieving stages so must you.  Sometimes it is handy to talk to another sibling about the deceased.  Talking makes everything seem more real and not a nightmare that you will soon wake from.  Friends and acquaintances that come to see you and offer their condolences seem unreal because you are still in that stunned dream state.  Your friends are needed but only after the shock has wore off and you realize that you will never see the loved one again. 

If a person is married and has a family of their own the acceptance is sometimes better because they can lean on his/her spouse and children.  Mostly this just helps to keep a person occupied with other things to do.  A grieving person spends a lot of time being on automatic pilot because the loss of a loved one is so painful.  The transition of time to overcome the grief is different with each person.  At the end of the grieving time you will find that you start to judge your present life in a sense as to where you are headed.  Do I like my life?  Is there something that I want to change?  Do I enjoy my job?  Will everyone survive if I pass away?

When writing this I recall the losses in my family.  I lost two older brothers and two fathers and even now when it has been many years I still feel the pain and start to cry.  Their deaths all came when I was older and had moved away from home so I could not really tell anyone how to help their young children in the grief of losing a sibling or a parent. 

There are Internet sites as well as local help that can assist someone that is grieving over the loss of a loved one.  Here are a couple of links:

http://www.familygrief.com/

http://www.selfhealingexpressions.com/family_grief.shtml