Days 320 and 321

Happy Memorial (observed) Day! It's all storms and such here today, which is fine with me. We need the rain (Central Texas has been living in drought conditions for several years now) and I need the peace and quiet that always comes with storms. You can quiz a bunch of people, but the drought has been going on here since 2007. That's 7 years now! I know that 2011 was the driest year ever in Texas, but it's taught us how to be better managers of the water we have. Here at the HumbleVoyager Homestead (I can call it that, even though it's only a house on a lot in a subdivision) we made the following changes to conserve water (I'll notate the ones that were forced):

1. Yard watering with a sprinkler - once per week, on a schedule and at certain times (forced). They will put you in jail for not getting this one right!
2. No car washing in the drive way - (forced).
3. Military showers - we only take showers on the homestead and they consume lots of water. We do them the smart way now. If it's good enough for the Army, it's good enough for me!
4. No running the sink water for any reason - kind of like military showering only at the sink!
5. Use cooking water on plants - I've reworked many recipes with pasta to not require pre-cooking, but when I do have to 'boil' something I retain the water, cool it and pour it on the plants.
6. No bottled water - we do filter water for drinking, but now we do all that at home with no waste.
7. Replaced washing machine - our old washing machine used 45 gallons of water per full load. The new front loader uses a maximum of 5 gallons!
8. Low flush toilets - replace the old ones with new water saving types.
9. Low-flow shower heads - along with the military showers we're doing our best here.
10. Capture rain water for plant - we just capture what we can for the moment, but we're looking at new ideas for capturing more. All of this water is used on plants.

So, I started this blog yesterday and finally had to let it ride so I could get to bed at a reasonable time. I was back to work today (Tuesday, May 27 (day 321)) and it was nice to be back. Several people stopped by, mentioning how rested I appeared. It was nice because I really felt rested. It was nice to be back to work. Catching up is always a bit awkward, but I'll be fine. Email will take me a few days, but I'm okay with that.

Now it's time to get back to bed again. My how the time flies when you're having fun!! Until tomorrow when I'll share more of life from the world of HV, Godspeed, Voyagers!!