The three main limiting factors when we are traveling in a motorhome are water, electricity, and holding tank capacity. So when we get back to a "normal" place to live, we find ourselves still trying to limit these things. Which is of course a good thing anyhow, but it sure makes you think about how much is wasted by people living in houses.
I find myself thinking about how inefficient a normal household toilet is. Why would you need to waste gallons of water to get rid of a cup of pee? It makes no sense at all. Of course maybe our ancestors had it right in the first place. An outhouse doesn't use any water at all!
I know, there are some toilets out there that have that half flush button. Certainly better, but still wasteful.
Why haven't manufacturers come up with a better system that has become mainstream? And for that matter, why haven't they come up with a better toilet overall? Who hasn't had to reach inside the tank to fix that flapper that doesn't flip closed all the time?
Dreaming of Europe.
Ha... can you tell I have nothing to talk about today? Yesterday was a rain day. It poured on and off all day long.
Oh, I wanted to clarify... yes, we are staying at Ruth's dad's house. However, he is not here. He is now 85 years old and lives in a full time care home. And if he were here, we would not be able to do our quarantine here because he is in a high risk age group.
But, the house needs to be looked after until it is sold (hopefully) sometime next spring. There will have to be a big auction sale or something because it would be too much to try and individually sell all of the contents. Especially tough trying to sell things because we are 45 minutes outside of the city.
Anyhow, that is all for Ruth and her brother and sister to figure out.
What else?
How about the price of gold? Finally hitting record highs in U.S. dollars. Interesting times we are living in. I think it will go quite a bit higher yet.
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Heard on the radio that boats and RV's are selling well because of restrictions on public transportation e.g. planes, trains and buses.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's been true for about three months now. Normally during a recession they are the first things to NOT sell well. But this is not your normal everyday recession.
DeleteKevin, are you aware of waterless urinals? Most all new sports stadiums use them and save many gallons of water.
ReplyDeleteNope, we weren't aware of these but then again we don't go to sports stadiums or shopping centres. Kevin said that he doesn't recall seeing any at any of the airports we have been to either. Hopefully these will catch on and become more common, it sounds like a great idea. The other thing that we came across in Australia was a sink and toilet combo. The sink sits above the toilet tank and when you wash your hands the water goes into the tank to be used for flushing.
DeleteIt is too bad that the price of Gold has not kept up with the s inflation of the US dollar.
ReplyDeleteKevin says the price of gold is just going to go higher!
DeleteWhat are your thoughts on composting toilets in RVs? I know some people love them.
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar issue with my Grandfather. We had a big job to clean up, organize for sale all of his things. One thing that was a highlight was that my Grandad started making wine with all his grapes after my Grandmother passed away. He had 50+ cases in the basement. He won At the state fair wine for many years. We had to open a bottle, sample the wine and decide if it was drinkable. Some tasted like vinegar and others really strong. But many cases were excellent. We invited cousins and neighbors and had wine everyday until we finished the job (2 weeks) We ended up getting a huge construction dumpster delivered and we filled it up. We gave every family member their pick of furniture, tools, wine, and quilts. It was so much work and so much emotional energy to say goodbye to this place we all loved. We had to rent a truck and drive all of it from Kansas to SC. We had his wine at our home for years.
We think the idea of a composting toilet in an RV is a great idea, especially if you love boondocking. We have talked to several people that have them and love them, unfortunately the price of them is crazy high. We have said that if we ever got a small RV for traveling down to Argentina one day that we would probably consider putting one in, seeing that it isn't so easy to find places to dump the black tank.
DeleteLol, that is funny about the wine. My Dad made his own wine and then in later years went to places here in Ontario where you make the wine but they look after it all until it is time to bottle it and then he would come back and bottle it and bring it home and store it in his basement. Well over the last couple of years we have slowly been making our way through that wine.
Yes, there is definitely a lot to do here. The main thing is to sort through the junk that is garbage and get rid of that and then sort out the very personal stuff after that we think the easiest way to sell the rest of the stuff is to have an estate auction sale which I believe is what both my Mum and Dad had said would be done in their will after their deaths and then the money split three ways between the three children. Because the house is in the country that seems to make the most sense because it would take forever to get rid of things individually and people from city wouldn't come out for the 45 minute drive just to buy some small item. We think doing the auction would get rid of most stuff and less stuff would end up in the landfill which is what we want to avoid if we can, plus more things would sell, even if it is only for a few dollars.
When I moved to Mexico in the 80s, water was rationed in Monterrey. Some parts of the city had water in the morning and others at night. We saved water in buckets. That was my precursor to boondocking. Since then, even though water is abundant now, we still don't let the water run in the shower, run while washing dishes.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about homes. If I were to build another home, it would have water catchment, composting toilets, and use the gray water for watering. Many municipalities around the world forbid it, but that's more about paying taxes and selling you water and sewer lines.
Imagine a home that was not dug into the ground with pesky pipes and stink?
There are still communities in Mexico where the water is turned off and only turned on on certain days. Our friends just outside of Puerto Escondido are like that. I think the water is turned on every second day or so, so they fill their cement cistern and their tinaco on the roof of the house and then every other available container that they can, especially if it is wash day. I wish more people would think about the water they waste and try to reduce it. We have never ever let the water run when we wash dishes, ever! We like to be conscience of our resources whether we are in a house or our RV. The other thing that most people don't think about is their electricity usage. :-(
DeleteIt's been speculated that wars will be fought over water in the not so distant future due to further shortages based on both climate change and increasing population levels.
DeleteSomehow that wouldn't surprise us at all. This is why it is so important that people learn to conserve their resources before it is too late.
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