Good Old Times

[besleybean]

Sorry I keep being reminded of stories...well actually a reality in this particular case.

A woman I work with, her hubby is notorious for being absolutely OCD.

When thy go on holiday anywhere, his case is half full of various little plastic tubs, full of coffee, tea etc,..because of course you can't get these things anywhere else in the world!

[Van Buren Supernova]

Wah, that would make the travelling very tedious. Sometimes I bring a couple sachet of my favorite tea but that's about it, and that's only for certain gathering trip.

He definitely can't go Australia then. They are very strict with food items.

 

Starting fire with bow and spindle, wow, I've never tried that.

However, is it possible in wet weather? Maybe yes, as long as they are dry?

[besleybean]

Sorry, I'm going to tell one of my stories again.(I am definitely getting old!)

When we lived on the Shetland Isles, I worked in a petrol station/mini-mart in the main town.

I was on the tills and loved it as I got to know a whole raft of regular customers.

The local Methodist minister was also the local scout leader.

One day he came into the shop to buy a box of matches.

Trying to be smart I said, "hey, I thought you were supposed to rub two sticks together."

He groaned and rolled his eyes and replied," God with the lot I've got with me this time, it'll take all my strength not to rub two of their heads together!"

[Carol the Dabbler]

When thy go on holiday anywhere, his case is half full of various little plastic tubs, full of coffee, tea etc,..because of course you can't get these things anywhere else in the world!

So they didn't just make that up for Monk? :D

[besleybean]

See, I really do need to watch that show!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Starting fire with bow and spindle, wow, I've never tried that.

However, is it possible in wet weather? Maybe yes, as long as they are dry?

You definitely need everything dry, but I see no reason why you couldn't start a fire in wet weather, presumably under some sort of overhang.

 

Don't recall what the weather was like when I tried it, but I do recall the thrill when I created a spark and successfully transferred it to a wad of tinder, which I then held in my hands and blew gently till it burst into flames. At this point I dropped it, of course, and began piling larger and larger tinder on it. So yup, it works.

[besleybean]

Coincidentally I attended my first ever campfire this morning...I helped collect the sticks, but the park ranger actually lit it...though he did have to resort to a firelighter.

Come on, it was misty weather in a Scottish winter!

[T.o.b.y]

I am feeling very old-timey right now... Our water got cut off (no, not because we didn't pay the bills; there's a technical problem and the town hasn't figured it out yet) and I am showing off my no-running-water skills that I acquired growing up in a very old house in the country where this happened all the time. (I threw a Sherlock-style tantrum first, though...)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Can you give us some examples of those skills? We have our own well with an electric pump, so we're without running water whenever the power goes out, and your tricks might come in handy.

[T.o.b.y]

Oh, I am sure to you they're boring. I meant things like washing my hair in the sink with bottled water, doing laundry by hand, improvising a shower etc.

[T.o.b.y]

Also be prepared and keep a stash of large water bottles in the basement.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Nope, not boring at all. How do you flush the toilet? Or are you fortunate enough to have the composting kind?

[T.o.b.y]

I pour my dish water, laundry water and other waste water into a bucket and flush the toilet with that.

[besleybean]

Speaking as one who recently gravely suffered at the hands of a broken toilet...sometimes a bucket of water has to do, even in your home bathroom!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Speaking as one with somewhat-erratic electrical service, I've sometimes thought of getting a composting toilet installed in the basement.

[besleybean]

Do toilets require electricity to work?!

[Carol the Dabbler]

No, but the pump in our well does. No pump, no water, no flush. Unfortunately it appears that the best composting toilets do use electricity -- but there are some basic models that do not.

[Arcadia]

We're on a well too, but it's a lonnnnng way from the house, and I've discovered there's always enough water in the pipes between here and there for a flush or two. After that, yeh, bottled water (or rain water, if it rains). Only had to do that once, though, after some hurricane knocked out the power for 3-4 days. That was an interesting experience, I think it's probably the longest in my life I've ever done without electricity. My biggest fear was not being able to pump gas for my car, but fortunately a nearby gas station got their power back after a few hours. After that, I learned to fill my tank before the storm hit!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thank goodness hurricanes happen when the weather is relatively warm!

 

There was an ice storm (freezing rain) where we used to live that broke power lines over such a wide area that many people didn't get it back for weeks. This was in early March, so the weather was still pretty cold. Fortunately for us, that happened right after we moved to California! :D

[Van Buren Supernova]

Yes, not boring at all. I read about Texas being down without safe water and I can't imagine surviving it well.

 

We are using well with electric pump as well, but we have a water tank for reserve, so there are still significant amount of water when there is a blackout. When the tank is half empty (you can adjust the level) the pump start filling again.

 

However, we have to watch out for pump malfuction, so if we don't hear the pump sound after using quite a lot of water, we better check it.

 

One day, we didn't take note and all of the sudden we didn't have a drop of water. Luckily, we were able to get emergency pump service to visit us because otherwise we were in bad condition. Haven't took shower, one in bathroom visit progress etc etc.

 

The composing toilet I encountered has very basic system. No flushing, but use saw dust although I'm not sure how deep it the toilet hole.. However, I think you can easily get unwanted things if you install it at home, it's good access for snakes, rats and those sort.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I think you're talking about what's called an outhouse in the US. I'm not even sure that they're legal here anymore. What I meant is somewhat more sophisticated, and is installed indoors. You could google clivus multrum.

[besleybean]

Oh you mean an outside toilet?

I think people can still have them.

But certainly councils now install indoor bathrooms in all of their property.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Why is it not legal? Health issue?

 

The one that I encoutered was in a place so called eco island. Everything is environmental friendly. The huts were made from all organic materials, the toilet was like that, amazingly, I think it's well built, there was no smell and it worked well. It's nice to stay for a couple of days but to be honest, everything organic is not really good for long term. We slept in bamboo huts and there were plethora of crawlies. We had those mosquito nets which was quite protective but still. I open the door one morning and the door crushed a giant beautiful moth. My friend woke up at midnight holding a slipper because he thought he heard rat going through our belongings.

 

I am glad that sanitary system improves a lot over the long years actually. When I was a kid, there were still a lot of wooden bathroom with toilet hole going to don't-know-where. I remember the stream in the city, not exactly stream, more like canal or actually drain, maybe. Not sure how clean was the water, because we couldn't see the actual color since the perimeter around it were dark. There were plenty of animals in there; eels, gigantic snails, fish etc, yet we used it like swimming pool. I didn't do much swimming there, only once or twice that I remember, because I couldn't see the bottom and it terrified me. I hated dark water and fish back then. However, it's swimming pool for almost every kids. And place for some mothers to wash everything as well.

 

Luckily, my parents taught us swimming in real swimming pool and did cloth washing at home, because I'm prettttyyyy suree the water in that canal was not health-approved grade.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Shower thought:

 

Kids back then wrote their dairy in a book and tried their best to hide it and get pissed when someone read it.

 

Kids nowadays write their diary online for everyone to see including strangers, and get pissed when noone read it.

[Boton]

Last year, we had to spend 11 days without power during the last cold spell of the year.  I was cooking over a wood stove and everything.  It was perfectly miserable, especially for my hubby, who had to be outside during most of it.  I sat inside and stoked the fire and tried to get all the necessary electronics charged any time we ran the gas generator.  Honestly, if it weren't for trying to keep the computers charged and the freezer going, it wouldn't have been so bad.