Saved From the Landfill

 After 27 years of marriage, my husband finally gets the gift giving right!  For Valentines Day, which to me is just another Hallmark Holiday, but if you get a great gift, the occasion doesn’t matter. He made me two rain barrels. Now some girls would prefer diamonds, flowers or even chocolate, and rain barrels could be grounds for divorce. But not this gal. I couldn’t be happier with my rain barrels.  The fact that he made them (out of plain old rubber garbage cans) instead of just buying them is even better! 

 So now we have two rain barrels collecting all the water off of our roof.  After the first rain they were full!  So I started thinking, I need to make room for more water.  Hmmm not having more barrels, and not having a garden to water for another 3 months at least, I started to think, “What could we use this water for now?” So I decided, why can’t we flush the toilets with them?  Well, guess what? We can, and we do. 

 Now I am not going to tell you that my family is happy about this, but they are cooperating.  I have turned the water going to the toilets off. We have a few large buckets, we “fetch” the water from the barrels outside, bring them to the bathrooms, and when it’s that time to flush, we are saving gallons!  Ahhh what a great feeling! 

 To add to the water saving, while showering one day, I decided, hhhmm why couldn’t we capture that water and use it to flush.  Guess what, we can, and we do!!  When I explain this to people, they think, eeww your bath water is being re used.  Uhmm yea, to flush!!  I don’t think we need sparkling water for this.

  Okay, my family is really not happy with the bath water thing, but they’ll survive.

 I realize in the 21^st century we shouldn’t have to “fetch” our own water for flushing.  But then again, why can’t we?  What is wrong with some good old fashioned manual labor?  After all why do you think Jack & Jill went up that hill?

 Some day my aspirations to live off the grid will come true, and this is just one way of preparing my family for that day!

 A rain barrel can and is as simple as a trash can catching the water from the gutters off a roof.  Since we are just starting this adventure, our materials are quite basic. 

   How to build a Home Made Rain Barrel:

1)      Purchase, dig up, haul out, in some way obtain a barrel.

John used a 33 gal trash can.  The 55 gallon drums would be great, but I am finding them hard to obtain.  I have gotten one 55 gallon and one 30 gallon, which he will make a rotating compost bin out of next.

2)      Cut a hole in the top to accommodate the downspout from the gutter.

 Optional:

 3)      Purchase a hose bib from the hardware store, use ½ “rubber washer with silicone and some plastic nuts (from an old faucet).

4)      Drill a hole in the side, put the washer & the hose bib with some silicone

from the outside in through the hole, take plastic nut screw from inside.

 Since our garden will be downhill the water will be able to flow easily. 

 To “fetch” the water for now, we are just scooping it through the lid.

   Flushing:

 While showering we close the damper so the water is collected in the tub. After showering we fill the buckets up with the bath water. It takes almost 2 gallons to flush our particular toilet.

 We leave the tank uncovered for now, until we find a fancier way of doing this.  After the flush, just use the bath water to refill the tank. I have placed an old shower curtain liner on the floor in case the water drips out while pouring.

I realize this is not fancy, in some way this is why I like it.

 It is a simple, inexpensive way to save water, money and to lessen the impact we are making on our earth. And honestly, it does not take up that much time.

“Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink,”

Let’s hope this never happens!

Jo

**PLEASE NOTE: If you have small children NEVER leave containers uncovered.**