Water Recon Mission 101

Water.

When camping (tent or trailer) or 'roughing it', water is something you need to think about. You might purchase a full service site to alleviate this issue, or you may have to bring your own water from home.

So, if you're an off-grid cabin, a permanent site... without a well, how do you get water??

We have owned our cabin for almost six months now and during this time, we have had to refill our cistern-style water tanks 6 times (600 gallons total or the equivalent to 171.4 toilet flushes). The previous owner was kind enough to leave us this tote (255 gallons) for water transportation. We have two choices: Fill up using a hose at the local tourist information depot (20kms away), or use a water pump combined with a generator to collect from the naturally occurring mountain spring run-off on our property (this water is not potable).

Each time has been a learning opportunity in how to do it wrong, and one might end up with more than one soaked foot in order to succeed! (Boots required!)

Needs:

Water pump

Generator

Flexible Hose

Bucket (to help weight the pump)
Tote, or other water vessel

This isn't the fastest process in the whole wide world, but we try to make the best of it. A 45 minute fill proves to be a nice picnic lunch, some art on the hillside, or some quality snowman building time. And occasionally, we name things. May we present "Grizzly Lookout":

Grizzly Lookout

Xman and Jasper. A boy and his dog. 

I love how Xman's hat stands out amongst the blues and greens!

While Xman sat with the dog, this girl did her thing.

Upon returning back to the cabin, we then need to unload the water from the tote into the holding tanks in the basement of the cabin. 

Water collecting has certainly lead to smarter usage. At the cabin, we live by the saying, "if it's pee, let it be" and well, you get the picture.

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Well Drilling Status -

We drilled a well! Currently the water is being tested and we'll know soon whether we have a successful dig! At the moment, the well looks like this--

More to come! 

Stay tuned!