Dear Ma, I THINK I've had a brilliant idea.
We're saving about 15 gallons of water when we each shower; that's about how much the tub holds that we stand in to shower. Each of us only bathes every other day, which saves, too.
And we've been saving our dish rinse water, also. That's about another gallon or so.
All that gets used to flush the toilet.
So, we're saving about 120 gallons per week, doing this.
BUT: I've been using fresh tap water, through the garden hose, to run the washing machine. And, even though that water gets discharged into the garden, it's a lot of water. Each washer load is about thirty gallons: wash and rinse.
Well, we usually have leftover water from our showers. We often have a LOT of it: about ten gallons. We just don't need to flush the toilet that often.
So, this morning, I added a few drops of bleach to the last tub of shower water. I filled three of those --what? maybe three gallon? -- buckets we use to flush the toilet.
I put them in the WASH cycle of the washing machine!
Why not?!
So, I can take a shower later today, and the tub won't be half full of cold water from your shower!
I've still got enough left to suppliment another load of laundry.
And here's the beauty part!
We can keep water in the washer tub and emmerse that water bed heater overnight, so the pump and hoses don't freeze and break! It'll keep the whole thing above freezing! And the machine will already be partly full of warmish water, next load of laundry!
I'll only use the waterbed heater when temps. fall below freezing, though.
It'll also conduct heat down the garden hose I use to fill the washer, to keep that from freezing.
So, we CAN keep the washing machine on the back porch, recycle the water into the garden, keep the clothes clean, recycle water and live happily ever after!
Not bad, huh?
Love,
Ma
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