Necessity isn’t the Only Mother of Invention
We’re getting a crash course in water conservation this spring. And by “we” I mean the entire village of Pflugerville.
As many of you
know, our main source of water, Lake Pflugerville, has been looking more like a
pond than a lake after multiple breaks in the pipe that feeds water in from the
Colorado River. Yes, I’m as curious as most of you as to how there were not
one, not two, not three, not four, but five separate breaks in the line in a
few months’ time.
But don’t worry,
this column will continue to shy away from the political and avoid municipal
government commentary. Suffice it to say, we’ve been forced into stage 3
emergency water conservation mode which means no outdoor water usage.
No car washing, no
lawn watering, no sprinkler playing. And this is expected to go on until at
least May as Lake Pflugerville has to get back to a certain depth for us to be
in the clear.
Some of this is
just inconvenient. I can’t spray down my back porch to clean it off. The kids
can’t play in the sprinkler or baby pool. Ok, not a big deal.
Some of this is
more problematic. How are we going to keep the newly planted trees and garden
plants alive?
Some of this is
not a problem at all. Wait, people wash their cars?!
Thankfully, we’ve
had a bit of rain recently and that both filled the duty of some of the lawn
and garden watering we would have done, but also presented an opportunity to
capture some water for future outdoor use.
After years of
poking fun at my dad’s collection of five-gallon buckets (aka mosquito breeding
tanks) along his roof line for catching rainwater, guess what we did before the
recent rains? And we didn’t just use five-gallon buckets, but ice chests,
plastic tubs, and even a rubber boot (although that may have just been an
accident).
Between these
containers and the rain barrel I put under a gutter, we had over 100 gallons in
no time. We had enough rain and needed some of the containers so we even
transferred some into a water table for the 2-year-old – all without ever
touching a hose.
As much as I don’t
like being in a water emergency, thinking a bit more deeply about how we use
water hasn’t been the worst thing in the world. Before the rains filled our
buckets, my wife took a critical look at our water usage inside the house to
see if there was any way to recapture some of it.
This was the
perfect project for her to undertake. After all, she finds a way to feed our
family each week without sending us into bankruptcy which I assure you involves
no shortage of creative thinking. Well, she borrowed from that tool belt and
determined there was an easy way to capture several gallons of water a day that
otherwise would go down the drain that we could use for the garden and potted
plants.
Unless you’re one
of those cold shower people (you know, crazy) you probably let the shower warm
up for several seconds to a minute before you step in. What if you put a five-gallon
bucket under that spray of uncomfortably cold water?
Well, even if it’s
just half a gallon, if as many as nine of us are showering there’s almost five
gallons right there. During stage three watering restrictions, that’s the
difference between having a small garden and having a weed patch.