I belong to a hunting and fishing camp in the Endless Mountains of Sullivan County, although lately I'd have to say it is a hunting and a putting-my-line-in-the-water camp. The fishing has been dismal, and everybody I talked to during my last trip in April said the same thing.
But I didn't come home this last time empty-handed.
Camp, so you know, doesn't have running water. It has a barrel, a big blue plastic monstrosity with Shanghai stamped on the bottom for some reason. And about a mile or so down the road is a spring to fill the barrel.
Needless to say, there's also no hot water heater ... other than the cook stove.
So for a weekend, I got into the habit of saving water and not wasting it throughout the day, something that is a better lesson than just trying to save a little water here and there throughout your house.
With modern amenities, and the way we whisk through our days as creatures of habit, the hot water at home runs longer than it needs to, and then we realize to turn it off.
At camp, you can't even turn the hot water on. You have to think ahead and boil just enough to get through dishes and cooking, but not too much that you have to trek all the way back to the spring at 1 a.m.
So I came home with an appreciation for how much water I use and a lesson in how much I really need to be using. Maybe all the Western world should have a hunting and (lousy) fishing camp.
This post reminded me that our family needs to pick up a rain barrel.
Just this past week -- with all this rain -- we noticed that our gutter in the front of our house is leaking. Having a ton of rain water pour next to your house is not good for your foundation.
So, to fix the problem, temporarily, we put out a bucket to collect the water. You would be amazed at how much rain water you can collect in just an hour.
Again, we learn out of necessity.