For the past 5 years, our family has been living without running water. Instead, we live with what I have heard referred to as "walking water." In our case, the walking part has been quite literal - walking hundreds of gallons of water in buckets from one place to another. I admit, living without running water has been one of the bigger challenges of developing a homestead from scratch, particularly when our dreams, plans, and actions include planting hundreds of fruit trees and two large gardens, raising chickens, ducks, lambs, bees, dairy cows, and keeping a family of four clean, fed, and hydrated. Why Live Without Running Water? Honestly, when we moved to NE … [Read more...]
A Homestead Outdoor Shower
Although our little off-grid home feels fairly cushy these days with solar electricity and even internet connection, we still live in a "dry" cabin - our home has no running water. Rather, we have what I like to call "walking water," meaning that we haul buckets of water from our water catchment/pond into the house, and back out again as greywater. While dishes, and even cooking are not much trouble, bathing without running water is a real challenge, especially with two young kids who have an affinity for mud! So, when my husband built an outdoor shower for our homestead, I was THRILLED. This system is perfect for the "swing" seasons - spring and fall - and on days when it is simply too cold … [Read more...]
Homestead Waterworks
An area of our homestead infrastructure that we spend A LOT of time thinking about, worrying about, and being creative about, is water. As we are living completely off-grid, we have to figure out ways to source water for drinking, bathing, washing dishes, cooking, watering the garden, watering fruit trees, and watering animals. Over the past year we've developed some homestead water systems that were very successful, like our summer rain water catchment; some that were fairly unsuccessful, like our buried winter water catchment system; and some that work, but require a lot of effort, like carrying buckets of water from the pond to our home. Recently, I've been inspired by an amazing … [Read more...]