Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Learning Curve: Living in the Country
Living in the country is going to be a whole new experience for me. No longer will my ability to parallel park a 12-seater van on a dime be a necessity. No longer will I need to carry extra change for parking meters. I'm learning about all kinds of new things like septic tanks, boilers, wells, water softners, etc. Did you know that if you have a septic tank and your electricity goes out you can't flush the toilet? We'll be getting a generator before winter gets here!
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5 comments:
We have a septic tank and can flush the toilets when the electricity goes off.
We couldn't though when we had well water still (which was so iron laden that it turned white clothes a dingy orange and had rust that made the tubs hard to clean as well as the toilets). We now have city water. Sure I wish we still had well water because of the bill but what we are paying for water sure out weighs the cost of having to replace clothing all the time because it was disgusting from the iron and rust... laundry additives that were made for iron and rust didn't help.
You can flush the toilet -- fill up a bucket with water and pour some in the tank before flushing - then it will work! You'll need a really big generator...and you have to keep a supply of gas on hand for it.
Thanks Laura and Paula! We do have well water and the toilet bowls were orange when we bought the house. I don't even know if city water is an option. I'll have to ask around. After paying the outragious water/sewer bill here, I'll be happy not to have that due every month. (Because of a water separation project the sewer bill went sky high.) I'll have to do some research on the laundry additives. Hopefully, our rust/iron isn't as bad as yours. Even though we don't have the bill, we do have to concern ourselves with the drain field, which may need to be moved in a few years. Something else I didn't know about until last month -- drain fields. And the septic tank probably needs cleaning out. Then there is the propane tank -- another new thing for me. Apparently propane prices are going out the roof with gas prices, so we're looking into alternative energy sources. Oh, so much to do and learn!
The generator isn't for the septic; it's for the well. You can flush if you have water to fill the cistern (lake water works), but there's nothing to shower with. But you know that already...
Rust stains on clothes: Barkeeper's Friend.
All this from a city girl--with country living in-laws!
Oh, how funny and I used to live in the country too. I have moved around a bit. Detroit-Harrison, Michigan-Palm Bay and Haines City, Florida as a kid.
A little country slang for you- those big propane tanks are called "pigs".
When we moved from Detroit to Harrison, we had power outtages- but the next door neighbors had a well with pump and an outhouse, so we could make it through. Didn't happen too often. But my dad still worked in Detroit and my mom couldn't drive. And the rural bus was by appointment, except not running on weekends. The pavement ended a mile or two from our little lakeside subdivision, the convenience store was a four mile walk. And no, I didn't walk that far to school, a bus took us.
It sounds so backwards- but it was my favorite place to live as a child. Lake down the road, woods behind our property, and sweet space, space between neighbors. And used to get deer pass by before. Oh how wonderful for your children to live in the country!
Crystal
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