By Bob Difley
California is in the midst of the worst drought since records have been taken. in fact, the rain fall this year is half what the previous worst year total was.
This loss of available water stores (snow pack, reservoirs, aquifers, etc.) will be disastrous for farmers, spawning salmon, and homeowners (who water lawns, wash cars, plant gardens, and follow several water wasting habits in their everyday lives.
States other than California are being affected also with water shortages, unlike those in the Midwest, South, and East Coast that are receiving too much of the wet stuff.
Normally dry areas, like the deserts of the Southwest, of which much of California qualifies as well as parts of Eastern Oregon, Southern Arizona and New Mexico, could suffer the most.
You can expect water conservation guidelines to ramp up as the situation continues to worsen. Some areas are already prohibiting watering lawns, cars, washing down driveways, operating sprinklers, and flushing toilets less (phew!)
But we boondockers have a leg up on everybody else (not to be smug, or anything) because as we pursued our love of boondock camping, we also learned how to conserve water to avoid filling our waste water tank or draining our fresh water tank, causing us to vacate our campsite discovery and drive off to find somewhere to dump and fill.
But these same skills we learned on how to conserve water while camping are also valuable skills to practice at home now that water conservation is looming over all of us by severely dwindling supplies. The following water saving tips will serve you both as a boondocker as well as a stick house dweller.
- Wash dishes in a dish tub and discard the dishwater onto a thirsty bush or to water your plants or garden.
- When washing or showering, turn the water on to wet down, then turn off. Soap up, then turn water on to rinse.
- Turn the water off when brushing teeth. Turn on only to rinse.
- When running water while letting it heat up for showers or washing, save the running water in a plastic tub to use for watering plants, cooking spaghetti, or other high water uses.
- If you must wash your car or truck, consider one of the waterless car wash products.
- Install drip waterers for the plants at your house.
- Maintain the right mindset: Always be conscious of wasting water, and what you can do about it.
For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.