Bank Holiday Monday 29 May 2023
I thought the heating would be the most challenging of our problems. The water situation has trumped that. We now have a trickle of water coming in from the spring, with no idea how much water is still in the spring. The trickle is controlled to be just that amount to avoid air locks. However, it will take, I don’t know, at least a week to fill up. The most stressful and worrying thing, however, is that, for no obvious reason, the water level in the tank is dropping. Last night, it was only about half covering the outlet pipe (in the morning it had been about one centimetre above the outlet pipe). This morning, the water level is just below the outlet pipe, meaning there is no water going into the house. As of yesterday morning, we have not used any of the taps or flushes in the house in an attempt to not draw more water from the tank. The only thing we can think that might have caused the water level to drop is if the house, as it were, drew more water to fill the tanks. It is, to put it mildly, very alarming.
Last night, I used an old, porcelain washing bowl and jug that Chris had from his mum’s house. I heated up some water and three-quarters-filled the jug, took it upstairs and poured half into the bowl, which I placed on a chair within the shower. I then used a cloth and soap to clean myself before pouring the soapy water over myself. I refilled the bowl and used the cloth to squeeze hot water around me to rinse off the soap. That took ages. Ages. I unexpectedly enjoyed the slowness of the process of cleaning but there is no way I will use a bowl, jug, flannel and soap in place of a shower when our water supply is back to normal.
I have turned taps away from the sink, covered up the taps in the wash basin, left hand sanitizer by wash basins. There are three large orange buckets and two smaller jugs around. The orange buckets are filled with water from the hot tub, which has now become our secondary water tank. A big flask contains any hot water we haven’t used when boiling a kettle (good for washing-up). There are bottles of drinking water around and a few remaining large bottles of water from our own taps, filled up once the drinking water bottles ran out last time we had no water in early April.
Mitch was, coincidentally and fortuitously, working here yesterday. He’s fitted a wider, hopefully more efficient, tap system to the water tank. I will only feel confident about that once the water level starts to rise. Meanwhile, Chris is in email talks with a borehole and spring specialist. We are hoping he’ll be able to visit this week. We also need to have a chat with our neighbour about his borehole and our accessing it (which is mentioned, thankfully, in the deeds).
Of all the things I take for granted about having water on tap, it’s the cooking process that is most frustrating. I can’t just run a tap to clean my hands, water to boil pasta takes up far more of a five litre bottle of water than I would have hoped to use – we are now trying to cook more water-aware – and washing-up is a real challenge. Oh well, at least there is sunshine so the solar panels are probably providing the energy for all the kettles we’re having to boil.
Brushing teeth is also annoying. I have a new routine of filling a plastic cup with bottled water, wetting my toothbrush in the water, brushing my teeth, then pouring the water over the brush to clean it and the wash basin. It’s only a cup full of water but for some reason it is a particularly annoying plan B to running a tap.
My friend Duncan gave me a simple device to attach to a two-litre bottle as a makeshift shower. I will try that as an alternative to the bowl for rinsing.
Next rain is forecast on 8 and 10 June. The long range forecast has significant rainfall in August and September. It’s a shame we can’t fully enjoy and appreciate the sunny, summery weather we currently have. I like to think I will not face days and days of rain over summer and complain about the rain. Post-rain sunny days will be enjoyed enormously.
I’m trying to make more effort to identify plants around the garden. This blue-flowered plant is, I now know, Ajuga reptans. Of all its common names, I think blue bugle is the most appropriate. It is from the mint family and makes good ground cover, ie it grows easily and rampantly. There are a lot of clusters of blue bugle in the midst of the long grass up the hillside. It looks lovely but I wouldn’t want it in a flower bed as I can see it would take over.
