I've always thought I'd make a good pioneer. I've stored food, I can garden, I love camping & "roughing it." I could survive if I had to. Until this week. When the well pump stopped working. And we had no water for 72 hours.
But you have a pool - with 30,000 gallons of water. Whats the big deal? Lugging buckets to the toilets to flush is one thing. Inconvenient only. But the pool water is chemicaled to death to keep the water clean enough to swim in. This chemically charged water would bleach out my clothes, so I can't use it for washing. It would kill every single plant in my garden, so I can't use it for that. I could boil it and possibly wash my dishes in it, but I'm not so sure I would. I definitely would NOT drink it or use it in cooking. I could use it to clean tables, counters, walls, floors, etc. but everything would smell like bleach. I wouldn't use it to shower in for long because my skin get really dried out from the chemicals, so showering usage needs a different option. AND this is all banking that I have no household water in the summer, as the pool would be Frozen in the winter. AND that I have electricity to keep the water flowing in the pool so it'll stay "clean". AND banking on all the pool equipment working. That's a lot of 'if's'.
Suffice it to say - I need better water storage! So, we'll still have the pool water as back up, but now we're going to use the gutters to help collect rain water for the yard and garden. We'll get large storage water for washing, cooking and cleaning and smaller containers for drinking. Oh and when they say you'll need a gallon drinking water and a gallon "other" water per person per day, they were calculating on the extreme scale. Reality - you need a gallon for drinking, a gallon for cooking, a gallon for washing/cleaning, a gallon for sponge baths (more if you have really long hair), and a gallon for misc. About 5 gallons/person/day. You can get by with less IF it rains AND you can collect the rain water. IF.
Other things I learned this week. My kids will have no more than 3 outfits. 1 for church and 2 for everyday. And they will wear them will they're grimy. Because hand washing laundry is the pits and less is more.
We used more paper towels than I thought possible. Because I didn't want to waist the precious little water I had on wiping up a spill. Use a paper towel instead. I went through a roll a day. I need to store more paper towels.
A generator will help with electricity, but when you have no water because the pump is broken, your just out of luck.
It's easy to forget about the little things because they're little. Until you have no water. "Mom I can't make pancakes, we have no water. - Oh, use a water bottle." "Mom the dog/cat are out of water. - Crap, use another water bottle." Those water bottle become a high commodity! And then the awful thought comes into your head - hmmm maybe we don't need the dog/cat/gerbil/Pet! Then you feel guilty for thinking that your kids pet is expendable on some level and thank goodness the well repairmen are in the front yard right now!
When you have to boil water to wash the dishes, you rely on a tiny bit of bleach to sanitize the final rinse. I'm going to have to store more bleach. I'm not a germ-a-phobic, but I just saw what kind of water that dish just came out of and I at least want to know that the bleach it helping me out on some level.
Bottom line - store more water than you think you'll need. Utilize nature and don't rely on the use of your pool. Store more paper towels & bleach and use less clothing. And thank Heavenly Father you live in the convince of this century and your not a pioneer!
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