Friday, December 2, 2011
Thinking While Working
I do a lot of thinking when I am out and about working by myself. Today I was thinking about a blog I read last night and how fortunate this young lady was to have the family she does. She learns from her father as well as her mother all the thing that are important for self sufficiency. Watching her blog you can see the strong influence of her loving family and the strength of her character.
I remembered how my dad was forever telling me growing up; "Girls don't do that." "Girls don't wear boot." Girls don't..." You all get the idea I am sure. He grew up somehow thinking girl were inferior. That is a sad thing because despite him not showing me how to do things he felt girls shouldn't do, I have learned on my own. I don't think I do very badly either.
When our granddaughters come up I like to get them to help me out. My hope is they learn a little something along the way and we have great fun while we are at it. My oldest granddaughter has been helping me since before she could talk. I still remember the time she insisted on carrying in the gallon milk jug. It was as big as she was and it took everything she had but she did it.
The girls in my family rock. There isn't anything we can't do. You can teach us or we will find a way to learn it on our own. In the long run, we will prevail. We can cook, we can shoot, we can build. We can even process a hog. ;)
Personal Quote
"If you are following the crowed you can not see far enough to have any idea where they are taking you. Stand on the rise and take a good look around. Then follow your own path." - Genevieve Strathman Snow
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Conserving Water
You can find many helpful hint on the Internet however most of them
to be honest seem to piss me off. I see most of them as band-aids
instead of real solutions.
It is in my opinion that in order to truly conserve water in a way that will really make a difference there needs to be a different way of thinking and a willingness to alter the way we live. We have been living as though we are rich kings and queens with unlimited resources never heading the warnings of the peasant who are warning us there is a problem. Most people just continue using and abusing resources.
"The survival rule of thumb is: 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food."
Take a look around you if you live in Texas. If you don't live here I will provide videos of some reality checkers. Ponds have dried up. Lakes have shriveled in size. Yes, we have aquifers however we have companies like Ozarka mass producing from the same aquifers we live on. (Ozarka bottles in Texas even during drought times.)
First I would ask that people stop buying bottle water.
My saying is, “If your solution effects me in a negative manner then it is not a solution. It is simply another problem you just decided to pass along to me.”
How are people to survive when companies are bottling water and ship it all over the world that they NEED to live on? It would be better to invest that money into bettering the water supply in your own area as a whole. Some argue that the company creates jobs locally. That will not do the area any good if they can not live there. They will end up having to move somewhere they can live and lastly the company will shut down and move it’s operation to a new location and do the same thing all over again.
Next I would ask you to take a look around and see what areas you use water and are they really necessary? Is it necessary to wash off your patio? Is it necessary to water your lawn? Do you really need your car washed?
Do you have a gutter system on your home? Have you thought of a rain catch system? Yes, you can buy those expensive things that are actually cheap and easy to make yourself. A few years back we purchased a food grate 55 gal. container from the local feed store in McKinney, Texas for just $8. You simply cut a hole large enough in the lid for the incoming water from your gutter downspout. Use a screen for filtration. Add a attachment on the lower end of the container for water removal and you have a rain catch system. Simple and pretty inexpensive. We have a 330 gal. container that we plan on doing rain catch with from our barn to water our livestock. It is just finding the gutter as we are unemployed and try to obtain things as cheap or free as possible.
Other ways we conserve water:
When running the water for a shower and waiting for it to get hot we collect the water in a bucket to use for watering the animals, plants, or flushing the toilet.
We do not flush the toilet unless it is necessary. We collect the paper in the waste basket except that containing excrement. You know the old saying, “If it is yellow, let it mellow. If it is brown, flush it down.”
I also have a bucket in the garage that I use for urine. I use that for the compost pile as it helps speed up the composting process.
When hand washing we have wash water in one sink and rinse water in the other instead of rinsing with running water.
We re-wear gently worn cloths several times before washing.
We as many do have a low flow shower head but we also take shorter showers.
We never water outside unless it is for the garden or feed for livestock. I detest having to water so it has to be a need before I will consider it.
I am sure there are other ways that we conserve however they have become such a way of life for us that at this moment we can not think of other ways.
Videos:
Please share the ways you conserve water in your own life. I am eager to see how others conserve and maybe find new ways to do so myself.
It is in my opinion that in order to truly conserve water in a way that will really make a difference there needs to be a different way of thinking and a willingness to alter the way we live. We have been living as though we are rich kings and queens with unlimited resources never heading the warnings of the peasant who are warning us there is a problem. Most people just continue using and abusing resources.
"The survival rule of thumb is: 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food."
Take a look around you if you live in Texas. If you don't live here I will provide videos of some reality checkers. Ponds have dried up. Lakes have shriveled in size. Yes, we have aquifers however we have companies like Ozarka mass producing from the same aquifers we live on. (Ozarka bottles in Texas even during drought times.)
First I would ask that people stop buying bottle water.
My saying is, “If your solution effects me in a negative manner then it is not a solution. It is simply another problem you just decided to pass along to me.”
How are people to survive when companies are bottling water and ship it all over the world that they NEED to live on? It would be better to invest that money into bettering the water supply in your own area as a whole. Some argue that the company creates jobs locally. That will not do the area any good if they can not live there. They will end up having to move somewhere they can live and lastly the company will shut down and move it’s operation to a new location and do the same thing all over again.
Next I would ask you to take a look around and see what areas you use water and are they really necessary? Is it necessary to wash off your patio? Is it necessary to water your lawn? Do you really need your car washed?
Do you have a gutter system on your home? Have you thought of a rain catch system? Yes, you can buy those expensive things that are actually cheap and easy to make yourself. A few years back we purchased a food grate 55 gal. container from the local feed store in McKinney, Texas for just $8. You simply cut a hole large enough in the lid for the incoming water from your gutter downspout. Use a screen for filtration. Add a attachment on the lower end of the container for water removal and you have a rain catch system. Simple and pretty inexpensive. We have a 330 gal. container that we plan on doing rain catch with from our barn to water our livestock. It is just finding the gutter as we are unemployed and try to obtain things as cheap or free as possible.
Other ways we conserve water:
When running the water for a shower and waiting for it to get hot we collect the water in a bucket to use for watering the animals, plants, or flushing the toilet.
We do not flush the toilet unless it is necessary. We collect the paper in the waste basket except that containing excrement. You know the old saying, “If it is yellow, let it mellow. If it is brown, flush it down.”
I also have a bucket in the garage that I use for urine. I use that for the compost pile as it helps speed up the composting process.
When hand washing we have wash water in one sink and rinse water in the other instead of rinsing with running water.
We re-wear gently worn cloths several times before washing.
We as many do have a low flow shower head but we also take shorter showers.
We never water outside unless it is for the garden or feed for livestock. I detest having to water so it has to be a need before I will consider it.
I am sure there are other ways that we conserve however they have become such a way of life for us that at this moment we can not think of other ways.
Videos:
Lake Lavon
Lake Travis (Austin, Texas Area)
AgriLife Today
Please share the ways you conserve water in your own life. I am eager to see how others conserve and maybe find new ways to do so myself.
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