Saturday, January 19, 2008
Snow and water
Well, we finally got some snow the other day. The first significant (for here anyway) snowfall since I moved here 3+ years ago. It was only about 2 inches, but work was closed for the day so we had a day off. Without pay I might add :p That'll hurt.
I got some pics of the dogs playing in it. James and I didn't get out in it though, we're wimps, and it was already raining on top of the snow by the time the sun came up and I took these photos! It was just slush by lunch-time. Its all gone now of course, but we're supposed to get more today.
This is our holly bush in front of our house
And the big pine tree at the front corner of our lot
The other day we were in Hickory and stopped by Sam's Club to get some Pig Ears for the dogs (cheapest place to get them, $10 for 25 pieces. They're about $10 for 6 pieces in the grocery stores!) and they had the Brita tap filter with 2 Nalgene bottles kits on sale for $25 (or so). We picked that up as well. Now I don't have to wait for the water to filter thru the jug when I need to fill a pot for cooking, or to make coffee or tea, now filtered water comes directly from our tap! We still have the jug in the fridge of course for cold water, I drink nearly 3 litres per day!
Check out the Filter For Good website. You can download coupons for Brita filters and Nalgene bottles.
Just by using re-usable bottles, filtering our own tap water, and not buying bottled water, we're saving about $500 per year and several tonnes of CO2. Which we've been doing for a few years now of course with the jugs already, but its extra convenient to also have the filter on the tap too. The bottled water industry is one of the worst rackets on the planet! All they do is filter tap water and put it in a bottle and then charge you $1.50 for a half litre. When it could cost you mere pennies to do that yourself at home! Mind boggling, it really is!
Didja know it takes them about 3 litres of water to bottle just 1 litre and send it to stores? How wasteful is that? Now how stupid do you feel for buying bottled water? Kick yourself in the butt and go buy yourself a Brita!
We've also been saving rain water (and snow!) in the doggie pool and bottling it for the dogs use. Check out the set-up
The other day when I was filling up some jugs my hands got so cold my fingers ached for an hour afterward! So yesterday when I was grocery shopping I bought some rubber gloves, like you use for washing dishes, and I put those over regular woolie gloves to insulate from the cold water. This morning when I was filling up the jugs, I couldn't feel the cold at all! I'm just bloody brilliant I am! :-D
We've got 3 - 7 gallon jugs and 1 - 5 gallon jug filled, plus a bunch of re-used 1 gallon milk jugs. I just re-fil them when necessary from the pool. The water is pretty clear (despite the mud at the bottom of the pool, as long as we don't stir that up!) and the dogs don't mind. With the current drought, we all need to do our part to conserve, and we're just doing a little bit extra. :-)
And if for some reason the tap water dries up or the pipes freeze, we've got purification tablets to put in the jugs so it'll be potable for me and James.
We're ready for the apocolypse...bring it on! ;-) ¶ 1:06 PM
I got some pics of the dogs playing in it. James and I didn't get out in it though, we're wimps, and it was already raining on top of the snow by the time the sun came up and I took these photos! It was just slush by lunch-time. Its all gone now of course, but we're supposed to get more today.
This is our holly bush in front of our house
And the big pine tree at the front corner of our lot
The other day we were in Hickory and stopped by Sam's Club to get some Pig Ears for the dogs (cheapest place to get them, $10 for 25 pieces. They're about $10 for 6 pieces in the grocery stores!) and they had the Brita tap filter with 2 Nalgene bottles kits on sale for $25 (or so). We picked that up as well. Now I don't have to wait for the water to filter thru the jug when I need to fill a pot for cooking, or to make coffee or tea, now filtered water comes directly from our tap! We still have the jug in the fridge of course for cold water, I drink nearly 3 litres per day!
Check out the Filter For Good website. You can download coupons for Brita filters and Nalgene bottles.
Just by using re-usable bottles, filtering our own tap water, and not buying bottled water, we're saving about $500 per year and several tonnes of CO2. Which we've been doing for a few years now of course with the jugs already, but its extra convenient to also have the filter on the tap too. The bottled water industry is one of the worst rackets on the planet! All they do is filter tap water and put it in a bottle and then charge you $1.50 for a half litre. When it could cost you mere pennies to do that yourself at home! Mind boggling, it really is!
Didja know it takes them about 3 litres of water to bottle just 1 litre and send it to stores? How wasteful is that? Now how stupid do you feel for buying bottled water? Kick yourself in the butt and go buy yourself a Brita!
We've also been saving rain water (and snow!) in the doggie pool and bottling it for the dogs use. Check out the set-up
The other day when I was filling up some jugs my hands got so cold my fingers ached for an hour afterward! So yesterday when I was grocery shopping I bought some rubber gloves, like you use for washing dishes, and I put those over regular woolie gloves to insulate from the cold water. This morning when I was filling up the jugs, I couldn't feel the cold at all! I'm just bloody brilliant I am! :-D
We've got 3 - 7 gallon jugs and 1 - 5 gallon jug filled, plus a bunch of re-used 1 gallon milk jugs. I just re-fil them when necessary from the pool. The water is pretty clear (despite the mud at the bottom of the pool, as long as we don't stir that up!) and the dogs don't mind. With the current drought, we all need to do our part to conserve, and we're just doing a little bit extra. :-)
And if for some reason the tap water dries up or the pipes freeze, we've got purification tablets to put in the jugs so it'll be potable for me and James.
We're ready for the apocolypse...bring it on! ;-) ¶ 1:06 PM
