Barefoot in the kitchen: Water Water Everywhere...Except In The Taps

It's been a little while but really that is because not a lot has happened in the dreary winter days since my last post. We continue to be besieged by plumbing problems down here on the farm. It might actually be more accurate to say that we have been besieged by weather problems. Waiting for a two day weather window in February which is either dry or not sub-zero is a bit like waiting for Donald Trump to say something which is either intelligent or not entirely stupid. Without this necessary weather window we (as so often when writing about the farm we, in this instance, means the big G) are unable to cast the concrete lid for our septic tank (did I mention this was going to be such a glamorous post?!). In addition, the pipes that should be carrying glorious water from our bore hole to our taps have fallen foul of jack frost and are all completely rotten. As a rotten water pipe is as much use as a carpenters ladder we find ourselves still without tap-delivered water.

The irony is not lost on us however as we shelter from the quite frankly biblical amount of rain that we have been having over the last week. Today there is literally water running in every conceivable direction outside the caravan!

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I know that I have mentioned this before, but not having free flowing running water has really made me realise just how much water we do use on a daily basis. One of my best friends Marcus has been trying to make this point to me for years, usually in response to my incredulous exclamations at the brevity of his showers (seriously, he has the speediest shower technique known to mankind!). It has however taken until now for me to fully appreciate how much water we pour down the drain. Bear with me here, there is a point. We are currently buying our drinking water in 5 litre bottles from our local super market. We then re-use these bottles and use the currently untested water from our borehole for all things that need boiled water like baths (of the tin variety for little man), hand washing, washing up, cleaning the toilet etc etc and other such glamorous pastimes. Everyday we get through at least 8 of these bottles and it sometimes feels like all I do is pour water from 5 litre bottles into kettles. As a result with every kettle I boil I think about how I can reuse water. Don't get me wrong I am not talking about reusing the washing up water to cook the vegetables but I can now see why siblings used to be bathed together. So, I now steam lots more vegetables (usually over the daily quota of potatoes that the boys demand); I don't drain vegetables (potatoes) that have been boiled anymore but take them out of the pan and reuse the water for other veg later. None of this is particularly interesting or glamorous (sorry) or even that noble but it is important...in a world where it is very easy to sit at home and lambast the politicians of our age we must make sure that we are accountable for our own actions, however trivial they may appear. Convenience after all does not equal morality.

On a positive and less ranty note at least the sodden ground is now soft enough for us to plant the orchard which currently looks like this!