frugal living 18

FRUGAL LIVING 18

UTILITIES

WATER, CONTINUED

Another thing you are not going to need water for is a flush toilet.  This might be a deal breaker for the spouse, but if that is so more than likely the move wasn’t going to happen anyway and that is just an excuse.  Composting your waste is not all that much more nasty than the actual act of making the waste and cleaning the residue off, and is far better than changing a baby.  If you place a plastic bag in the bucket ( I use a cut down bucket so I can use free shopping bags ), there is far less in the way of cleaning ( dump the sawdust/waste from the bag then throw the bag away in your regular trash.  The dump people are getting disposable diapers, Depends, and dog crap giving to them every day so one of your bags which may not even have one fecal smear-because the sawdust might have kept it from hitting the bag-on it is no big deal ).  For more details than you could possibly want, The Humanure Book is online for free, just search it. 

*

When it is time to wash your hands after soiling the sawdust, you need to work around having no running water.  I trash picked a beer brewing barrel, but you can make your own if you don’t want to buy one.  It is just a five gallon bucket with a plastic spout on the side near the bottom.  You push the handle down to run the water, rather than it being a twist.  I prefer dish soap to wash my hands, using my non-wipe hand to pop open the top and squirt a bit on the other, lathering first without water then adding just a few drops to really get the suds going.  Then wash off under the spout ( I have the water perched atop another overturned bucket and a catch bucket under the spout ).  Sanitary and using almost no water. 

*

To wash your body, you need very little water.  Now, I’m only a trim 190 pounds and I have a crew cut, so fat boys and gals with long hair are going to use a smidge more.  I use a quart to wash three times a week and a half gallon on the forth.  On alternate days I don’t wash I use baby wet wipes for my head, another the pits then crotch ( plenty of drinking water and whole wheat means I use a few wipes on my ass every day ).  On my Saturday wash I go head to toe with soap, using a half gallon, but on the other wash days I use soap just on my head ( greasy head, another reason I dislike longer hair ), pits, crotch and butt and use the soapy water last to swish my feet, using a mere quart.  The rest of the body is just a hot water on a washcloth vigorous scrub. 

*

I use Mason quart jars in my hot water heater so it is easy, each one being filled 16 ounces because they lay at an angle and will leak with any more, figuring out how much water to allocate to bathing ( in the winter, I either forego the heater entirely if too cold or use the heater to pre-heat and finish up on the propane stove.  But you’d be surprised how often solar alone is hot enough-but more on that in its own section ).  I started out using a pressure spray jug like you’d use in the garden, but stopped using them both because the quality went down and they broke too soon and because using a large thick washcloth in a container of water allowed me to scrub my skin which seemed to clean better than just spraying off soap.  You could call it a sponge bath or a whores bath, but it works for me and it worked for the whores I’ve visited who were nice and clean ( this was Korea, not some nasty crack whore here ).  Even once you get to the last of the bath when the water is pretty soapy, it is still a refreshing feeling bath.  And start out at the top and work your way down as it allows a bit of water to be double duty.  I bend over the tub to first clean my head, then get in and have the container at my feet where I go from neck down cleaning ( torso, skip middle to do legs and feet, crotch and ass last ).  This also allows you to towel off each part for when it is cold and you are trying not to freeze.   For gals, I’d alternate days between hair and body.  I’m not sure how much you’d need but it shouldn’t be more than a couple of gallons a week extra.  And remember, this is for a desert dweller on a bike.  Your location might have plentiful rain and even a small shed roof would have enough catchment square footage to generously supplement your hauled water.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.
*

The Old Bison Blog on CD 
Over five years of work and nearly two million words of pure brilliance. Here is the link to order:
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00KX7Z1I                         

Also as a free e-book, but not cleaned up or organized, at Lulu

*
Contact Information

 Links To Others,

 Top 20 Survivalist Fiction,

 Land In Elko,

 Lord Bison,

 my bio & biblio
*
My books on PDF ( ALL free!!  If you like it, most are available for sale in paper versions )  available at
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=james++dakin&sorter=relevance-desc
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.