I've been looking forward to the 7-Day Challenge, which I signed up for on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net. It is seven days in a row of mock disasters, which the participants try to live and then report on how they handled it. And Surprise! Today is the day it started! I got my email for the morning and discovered this:
Day One: Natural Disaster: Water Contamination
Assignment: Go and shut off the main water supply to your house immediately.
I got home and immediately turned off the water to the house. Then walked into the kitchen and saw how dirty it is. My dishwasher is mostly full of dirty dishes. I am choosing to let them sit in there until tomorrow, they will be stinky but I'm not going to handwash them all. I know that this "water outage" will only last one day. If it was truly broken, I would handwash them right now.
I got a frozen water jug out of the freezer, and sat it out for drinking as it thaws. I like to drink my icewater!
Then I got some water jugs out from behind the sofa and sat them around my kitchen sink.
When I got my hands dirty, I poured some water on my hands and washed them with handsoap and rinsed them. I noticed the water was going down the drain. I decided to put some clean paper towels on the counter and next time I will pour the water over that, then I can use the wet paper towels to clean up something, instead of wasting the water.
I would usually rinse out empty ketchup bottles to put into my recycling. Saw the empty dirty bottle, did not want to spare any of my water to rinse it out, so I put it in the recycling dirty.
Flushed the toilet very seldom, using jugs of water.
Wish I had a rainbarrel so I could water my garden. Decided to let it go one day without watering it.
I am amazed at how many times a day I wash my hands. I am using a lot of bottled water just for that.
Assignment: For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
I saw that I was almost out of milk, so I made some powdered milk. Used a can from 1991. We will see if we ever drink it, or if we just use it for cooking. I have always disliked powdered milk for drinking.
After it was cold, I took a swig. It didn't taste very good. So I put some Nesquick in it and it was totally drinkable.
Later, my son made macaroni and cheese. He used the real milk instead of the powdered milk. I told him that was a very bad choice, since that was all the real milk we would have for a week.
Assignment: Go to nearest source of fresh water and fill up several water containers.
In the morning I took a little ice chest and a big empty cottage cheese container with me and headed for the neighborhood lake. (I didn't have any spare buckets. I need to buy some more.) I had to walk down to the shore of the lake,and the ground was all squishy and muddy. I had to lean way over to scoop up water where it was about 2 inches deep, being careful not to disturb the bottom and get the water all muddy. The water was green and unappetizing, but I was surprised to see how clear it was. I was expecting it to be filled with algae and big floating particles but it wasn't. It took me a while using the cottage cheese container to scoop up enough water to fill the ice chest half way. I can see how a deeper place would have made it easier to get the water out.
Assignment: Purify that water with either a water purifier or an alternate purification method.
In the evening, my husband taught me to use his backpacking water filter. He said it was smart of me to have let the water settle all day, so the big particles were all at the bottom. He wanted the least amount of particles to get into his filter. The main cost of a water filter is the filter cartridge, not the pump itself. (He has a Sweetwater brand, he thinks it cost about $70 for the whole thing when he first bought it. When the filter needs replacing, that will cost about $50). We pumped the dirty green water up through the backpacking filter, and it squirted out clear water into a cup. I was afraid to drink it, but he took a drink and then I had the courage to drink it. It tasted just like tap water.
Assignment: You must find a way for you to bathe or shower today.
I put a pot of water on the stove to heat. I brought in a bucket of water that I had filled with the hose yesterday (which I had planned to use for watering the garden today.) I decided to use that bucket of water for me instead of for my plants. Carried the pot of hot water and the bucket of cold water into the bathroom.
I poured a little hot water and a little cold water into my bathroom sink and took a washcloth bath. (I didn't wash my hair today.) It took less water than I thought it would. I drained the dirty water down the sink.
I should have had more buckets, then I would have had the dirty water in a bucket instead of in the sink, and could have used it to flush a toilet or to water the garden.
In the evening, my son had to go somewhere, and he insisted that he had to take a shower. I gave in, and turned on the water for him.
Assignment: Cook all your meals with only the water you have in storage.
I cooked some carrots using water from a bottle. Drained the cooking water into a bowl so we could use it for cooking later. I ate several things that were already made. Cooking wasn't a problem and we had plenty of water in bottles to wash our hands and the counters. I left all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher until the next day when I will have real water again.
Things I learned:
I was mostly alone all day at home, and then in the evening my husband was the only one home. We barely used 3 gallons of water, but of course we neglected doing any of the main tasks in a home (washing dishes, doing laundry, showers, shampooing hair, watering garden, or flushing toilets much.)
We knew the disaster was fake and that we would have water the next day, so we just put off everything that needed water. If the disaster was real, we would have been in real trouble after a day with all those dirty dishes attracting bugs.
My husband was home alone in the evening, and made stirfry with meat and vegetables, and left quite a mess. He said he wouldn't have cooked those things if he was in a disaster.
I learned I had plenty of water for a disaster. I was happy about that.
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