December 18, 2008
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What is life’s most essential substance?
WATER!
The thermometer was reading about sixteen degrees above zero F at around seven this morning, a couple of hours before the crack of dawn. The warmer weather has not yet brought any new snow. Doug went out in the dark and managed to break the ice that had the hatch of our Subaru wagon stuck shut so he could get it open for us to load in empty jugs and buckets.
As soon as it started to get light, I loaded them in while he was doing something here at the computer, before I started the car to warm it up. Otherwise, I’d have been working in the exhaust and some of it would blow into the car while I worked. He came out to brush the snow off the car about the same time I got in it to start it. The combination of bumpy back road and cold-flattened radials impelled me to stop before I got to the mailboxes so Doug could do a walkaround and look for flat tires.
At the spring, there was a van in the parking area and we sat in the car to give its driver time to fill his jugs. When I saw how badly the windows were being frosted by our breath, I suggested we wait outside. That’s when I discovered that there was no one down at the waterhole. Apparently, it was an abandoned vehicle.
Doug grabbed four or five empties and headed down the path to the spring while I did a complex maneuver, opening my door and standing on the sill to see if any traffic was coming, crossing the highway, and turning around in the turnout over there to pull up in front of the abandoned van and shorten the schlepping distance. Then I ferried most of the rest of the empties down, bringing up some full ones each trip, until I ran out of breath.
Blur, our little old wagon, wallows like an overladen barge when he’s carrying sixty gallons or so of water in the hatch, and my visibility was impaired by the frosty windows, but it’s only about two miles and we made it okay. Now Doug has no more excuse not to wash dishes, and I have no more anxiety about where my next pot of coffee is coming from.
I’ll be back later with my entry for the new Featured Grownups challenge, inspired by It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m going to start working on it now. Do you think that will qualify as an entry in my Christmas Countdown? I have something else in mind anyway, just in case it doesn’t.
Comments (5)
Now that is quite an adventure. What keeps the spring from freezing?
@C_L_O_G - Ice builds up all around it, and covers the stream that flows away from the spring, but the artesian water coming up from the aquifer stays at the same temperature all year. When the ambient temp is way below zero, we can see vapor rising off the cold water.
With the whole neighborhood drawing water there, sloshing it onto the freight pallet where we crouch or kneel to fill buckets and splashing it sometimes onto the path and the parking lot, ice needs to be chipped away occasionally, steps need to be cut into the ice on the slope up to the parking area, sand or kitty litter scattered for traction. It takes maintenance.
@SuSu - WOW! I bet it is pretty with the vapor rising from it. Thank you for explaining it to me.
How long does six gallons of water last? I don’t think six would last me too long. Just me myself. I drink tons of water… can’t imagine having a limited amount.
I think we’re warmer than you currently. It was rain/sleeting when I went out a little while ago. The drive to work is going to be fun tonight, I can tell already.
@warweasel - A load is about sixty gallons, and we average two or three weeks between loads, usually. Daily usage varies according to what we’re doing. A sink-load of dishes washed and rinsed takes about five gallons. Watering all my houseplants takes about two gallons. I can shower and shampoo using a camp shower bag with less than two gallons. The dog and cats drink over two liters a day (their waterer uses a 2-liter bottle, upended, and it must be filled every day, some days more than once.) I consume maybe a gallon of water a day, or a bit more. Any water that can be recycled or reused gets reused – such as that in my hot water bottle, or the rinse water that becomes the next batch of wash water. In winter, a significant amount vaporizes from the pots on the woodstove. We have hot water on demand, and an automatic humidifier too. The colder the weather the more we need moisture in the air, and the hotter the stove the more the water boils.