For the last week or so it’s been raining pretty much continuously. This is a good thing because we really need the water.
However, the property we’re on at the moment has a big horse paddock through which we get to take the dogs for their run in the morning and evening.
Horses weren’t designed for Australia and so they have a tendency to turn ground into mud – which is exactly what they’ve done here. (Australia has very thin top soil and so animals with hooves tend to cause significant damage – but that’s a different and complicated environmental discussion which I’m not going into here.)
Also, the mud isn’t what I wanted to cover either.
In our previous house (a couple of weeks in the Blue Mountains) there was a large rain water tank which has a gauge on the top. This gauge shows the contents of the tank and has a maximum reading of 150. I’m presuming that’s 150,000 litres.
Danita and I love being able to use rain water in preference to town water. We find it tastes better and makes your hair and skin feel much better when used for bathing.
This house has the facility where you can switch between the rain water tanks and town water.
When we moved in one of the first things we did was switch over to the rain water tanks. At the time the gauge was reading as full.
The effect of switching to the tanks is the entire house runs only on the tank water – drinking, washing, toilet etc.
This was before the rains came, although it’d been threatening for some time.
It took us about 10 days before the gauge was showing 50. Assuming I’m right about what the gauge was reading (and I haven’t been able to check that I am) that means we managed to use about 10,000 litres per day.
(Now that I state it that way it does seem to be an unreasonable amount so MAYBE my stated assumption is incorrect. Then again it might be right.)
Danita and I are pretty conservative in our use of water and electricity.
There’s just the two of us plus Sancho in our household and Sancho isn’t a big user of water. While he does enjoy a shower he limits them to once a fortnight at most.
We don’t have baths and when cleaning our teeth we turn the tap off and other ways of being careful with our water use.
So it was a bit of a surprise for me to see just how quickly we managed to use up the water.
At that house it’s a simple matter to go back to town water – just the flick of a switch. But it got me thinking about how much of the world’s resources we’re going through without any thought.
I’m not suggesting we need to deprive ourselves of anything. Ultimately, I believe there’s great abundance and we have everything available we need.
However, abundance doesn’t mean we should be wasteful.
I was talking with a friend today who was telling me about doing the washing up with her daughter. Her daughter lives on a property which only has tank water. Lately, as a result of the rain, they’ve been able to cancel their water deliveries for a while – very exciting.
The washing up method consisted of washing a pot, then using the same water to wash the frying pan. I’ve also heard of a technique where detergent is placed into a dry pan which is scrubbed and then rinsed off using a very small amount of water.
For someone living in the city, with such easy access to plenty of water these techniques sound pretty strange. However, on reflection they make a lot of sense.
At the other end of the spectrum is a scene from the Coen brothers’ movie The Big Lebowski. In it the main character is “tortured” by having his head stuck into a toilet. This made no sense to me until I visited the US.
In Australia there’s a small amount of water at the bottom of the toilet bowl. While it would be a bit embarrassing I couldn’t understand why sticking someone’s head in a toilet would be a way to get them to tell you information they were potentially withholding.
The first time I visited a loo in the US the meaning of this scene suddenly became clear. There, the toilet is filled to the top with water. Having one’s head plunged into that could definitely be life threatening.
This experience with the tank also got me thinking about communities where they don’t have access to running water and have to carry all the water they need in drums and cans.
I’m very grateful to be living in this country where abundance is normal.
How much are you using?