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dryadgrlRunning out of water means bathing in the creek
Yesterday was the third day of running out of water. I've showered once since I've been here and the dishes are pilling up because there's not enough water to wash them all.
There's not enough water to water the garden and it's looking quite sad and possibly unrecoverable. It might actually be most cost effective for folks here to buy tomatoes rather than spend the money on gas to and from town to get more water even though the land is brilliantly fertile and can grow a wide variety of stuff.
But whether there's water or not, there's stuff that needs doin' and people that need to get clean. So we set off to a neighbor's house because they need help putting up their hearth and getting their house done before the rains. Community here is interdependent because it needs to be. You literally can't live out here alone so people are constantly sharing tools, resources, ideas and manpower. There's a lot of negotiating space because most folks couldn't go anywhere else even if they wanted to.
We got there mid-afternoon and it was too hot to work. Her property has lots of water so we took out water jugs over and filled them and then we headed to the creek for both resting and cleaning.
I wish I'd take some photos of this spot. It has a bunch of signs that say, "no mining or panning" but the water is gorgeous. (Someone owns the mining/mineral rights to the land, but not the land itself.) It's a big swimming hole big enough to do laps in and full of life from little tiny fish to crayfish. (Those treatments with the fish eating the dead skin off your feet can be had for free up here.) There was plenty of soap to be had and we all shucked our clothes off and jumped in. There was much (bio-degrable river-safe) soap and each person who bathed went down stream with the soap so that it didn't contaminate the water we were swimming in.
I don't know that I feel really clean, but I felt a lot better and hanging out at the river is certainly a lot less stressful than standing under a shower wondering if it's going to cut off while you still have soap in your hair.
Yesterday was the third day of running out of water. I've showered once since I've been here and the dishes are pilling up because there's not enough water to wash them all.
There's not enough water to water the garden and it's looking quite sad and possibly unrecoverable. It might actually be most cost effective for folks here to buy tomatoes rather than spend the money on gas to and from town to get more water even though the land is brilliantly fertile and can grow a wide variety of stuff.
But whether there's water or not, there's stuff that needs doin' and people that need to get clean. So we set off to a neighbor's house because they need help putting up their hearth and getting their house done before the rains. Community here is interdependent because it needs to be. You literally can't live out here alone so people are constantly sharing tools, resources, ideas and manpower. There's a lot of negotiating space because most folks couldn't go anywhere else even if they wanted to.
We got there mid-afternoon and it was too hot to work. Her property has lots of water so we took out water jugs over and filled them and then we headed to the creek for both resting and cleaning.
I wish I'd take some photos of this spot. It has a bunch of signs that say, "no mining or panning" but the water is gorgeous. (Someone owns the mining/mineral rights to the land, but not the land itself.) It's a big swimming hole big enough to do laps in and full of life from little tiny fish to crayfish. (Those treatments with the fish eating the dead skin off your feet can be had for free up here.) There was plenty of soap to be had and we all shucked our clothes off and jumped in. There was much (bio-degrable river-safe) soap and each person who bathed went down stream with the soap so that it didn't contaminate the water we were swimming in.
I don't know that I feel really clean, but I felt a lot better and hanging out at the river is certainly a lot less stressful than standing under a shower wondering if it's going to cut off while you still have soap in your hair.
