Going waterless.

[1stimestar]

I just rented a waterless cabin. Here in Fairbanks, about 20% of our population lives waterless so we have amenities for that in town, showers in the launddry mats and bulk waterstations. I just needed to go as cheap as possible so I can save up money for my own little cabin in the woods. Anyways, guess I'll be a frequent flier here.

[Ruthiegirl]

Good for you! There was a time we were looking at a move to Fairbanks and I was amazed at all the families living without water. That's living off the grid.

Good luck and stay warm!

[PreggieUBA2C]

We've been waterless since October 2008 with a brief stint with water for nearly two months that we thankfully ended just last month. I HATE running water in this climate in the woods. We were spending hours every day thawing pipes. No thanks.

So, what we've done and do now is to have seven blue 20 litre jugs that we fill and we have a wooden stand that holds the jugs up a bit from the sink so that there's enough space under the spigot to wash our hands and run water comfortably.

We have a galvanized tub for bathing the children and dp and I use the showers at the gas/water station up the highway.

I also wash my hair in the sink.

We used to haul water from there as well, but now we are living beside our neighbours who are sharing their enormous tank they pump water into from a creek across the highway. We'll be buying a large tank for that too so that we're not using so much fuel to haul water. We used to just take empty jugs with us every time we left home and not make trips just for water and that worked out fine.

It's very easy once you figure things out. Obviously you'll have to boil water for dishes and if you have very cold fresh water, to pour back into your jugs so you don't freeze your hands. In the summer we leave the jugs outside in the sun to warm up for dishes and baths.

Also, we use a sawdust or compost-bound bucket toilet usually (now we're unfortaunately hooked up to septic and can't cap it just yet) in the manner of The Humanure Handbook.

We use a lot less water than we did before and we appreciate it much more. That and our water has no chemicals in it! Yum!

[1stimestar]

They are just trying to floridate our city water, which I do not want them to do. Fortunatly we have a great spring that many people get their water from. It's free and since so many people use it, the city tests it occassionally and has built up a little filling station for it. Pictures of the inside are up: http://cloud9doula.wordpress.com/.