Monday 28 September 2015

The Blizzard of September 26, 2015!

It was brutal, it was bitterly cold, and the snow fell in historic proportions. It is the most sudden, intense and unimaginably cold blizzard to ever hit the city of Calgary. Snow fell and piled up with fifteen feet of snow and the temperature dropped to -50C! 
 

Life and hearts stopped in this city on the prairie . . . or so my local gas station must have thought. (Okay, I’ll admit it, that pic was a photo I grabbed off the internet.)

In fact it was a nice day with a high of 14.7C, a might chilly but still T-shirt and shorts weather. Yet my local gas station, the one that I dump at and fill up my fresh water tank at, has turned the water off. If you ask them they always say “It’s winter” and they don’t want their pipes to freeze. 

What this means for me is that I am now in winter water management mode, meaning the only water that I have is the one in my jug with a hand pump. So I will have to buy my water from the local grocery store at $3.00 for five gallons.

Yet it is not sooo cold that I can’t dump, I mean the cold weather hasn’t hit us yet, and most likely won’t for a week or two. What this means is that I can still use my black and grey water tanks. 

With that in mind I have created a new contraption, this is for me to wash my hands with and also let me flush my toilet. Even when I have to stop using the black and grey water tanks I plan to still use this to wash my hands. 
 



I had some left over clear tubing so I used that and attacked it to the collapsible water jug and then attached a simple tap on the other end. This way I can just trickle the water out to get my hands wet, turn it off, lather my hands up and turn it on again to rinse them. This even will store in my closet nicely. 

I am glad that I had my five gallon jug of reserve water, so I don’t have to start buying my water right away. I now have about a week before I have to buy more water. I got into the habit of having that extra jug of water for just this possibility. 

This also answers another dilemma for me: to winterize or not to winterize? My RV dealership sent me a promotional email flyer telling me of a winterizing special. I won’t even have to unhook or leave the RV there. For one low price they will winterize it on the spot, while I wait. I was wondering if I should or shouldn’t do this. 

Well, with no ready access to drinking water, there is no point in not winterizing. So I will say goodbye to indoor running water for the next six months. In about two weeks I will dump for the last time in six months also. I am not looking forward to pooping in a bucket again, or resurrecting my pee jar. 

I froze myself and endured winter in Wanda last year to pay the banks. This year I will endure the same for myself. I will be paying myself and working towards home ownership, and actually owning something. I have rented for the last time, so when I move to a fixed address, it will be into a place that I own, a place that I will have earned.

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