Est in aqua dulci non invidiosa voluptas.

There is no small pleasure in sweet water. ~Ovid

If you didn't already guess, today's topic for Low Impact Week is water usage and waste. Today is the last day for this challenge, but I have one more topic for tomorrow, and then we can go back to laughing at my mistakes.

I attempted to find some environmental info on open air lagoons, as we have one, but the majority of information I found was on hog waste lagoons and spray fields. Don't think that applies to me, but I have been wrong in the past. We will skip the sins of the lagoon for now. It was in when we bought the place and a septic tank isn't feasible because of the soil/clay content. A public waste system is not in place because of the distance and the two rivers on either side of us.

We use well water here. Our water level is 9 ft to wet sand, 12 ft to standing water. Add that with the fact that I am sitting in a valley that is in a valley and you get flooding. Luckily the house is high enough that is doesn't get wet. The flood water seeps down through the sand and there we have more drinking water. The water cycle is rather fascinating {this coming from a girl that plays D&D, yes, dork and proud} During the spring, we tend to go through a monsoon season. We rarely have to water our garden and orchard at this time. Water conservation is not a problem.

Our ground water is good and clean for everyday use without filters. Our filters are primarily for catching sand.

We use soaker hoses in the garden, and when watering the orchard I cut off the water flow between trees. Our yard and fields are a mixture of the surrounding fields crops, clover and dandelions, and I don't have a need to keep them alive. With the Kansas weather cycle, they live out their days natural, live and thrive in the spring, dry up and die in high summer. Most of the surrounding towns have water restriction during the summer. We do not have these restriction, but we have never found it a bad idea to only water the necessities. The grass and weeds will make a comeback next year.

We do not place buckets in our showers to catch the warm up water. We do not leave things running if not in use {like brushing your teeth and such} . A habit I picked up from my 7th grade Social Studies teacher is placing a brick in the tanks of high flow toilets. I have never done research on this. She was a big environmentalist, though not farmer friendly, and some of her habits and lectures rubbed off.

We use a lot of water here. Most of the things that will keep us alive, need water to stay alive. We do not have recreation water, like a pool, yet the boys enjoy playing in the sprinkler on the hottest of days. A dual purpose, when the sprinkler is moved around to keep the wind breaks and shade trees from getting thirsty as my children stay cool.

I did recently purchase a new front load washer. A fancy little thing that gauges the weight of the clothing and adjust the water to clean, and not overly waste. And at the same time bought a new dish washer. I never had one before, but I thought I already know how to do these by hand, so if I have to survive that way, I have proved I can. excuses excuses, ha!

I have severe migraines, had them since birth. When one of the killer ones hit in the middle of the night, I tend to take very long hot showers to try and sooth myself. This is the biggest water waste that occurs here. And at the time of the migraine, do not try to reason with me, I could kill.