Preparing for troubled times ahead - Advice on what is needed.....

[Woody girl]

What's the volume of your pump bottle?

With my hair, decent water pressure is key for any shower, but I can get by with a 1-1.5 litre jug, bending over the tub. Well, in soft water areas anyway.

Chaps with their short hair, (or no hair) are lucky when it comes to this particular bit of cleanliness aren't they? Us long haired sirens need something a bit more effective.
My little set up holds five litres. Which is plenty to get the soap out of my hair properly.

 

[BumblingAlong]

Been using a Lifeventure Travel Bottle Shower for years which works OK for a hair wash but I don't use it to body wash. I attach regular bottles 500ml to 2ltr. 500ml is just enough to head shampoo and rinse a short short haired man

Thinking of getting a UK equivalent of one of these garden spray manual pump adjustable nozzle with trigger locking gadgets for around £5. 1.5ltr looks ideal.

 

[Woody girl]

That looks like a good solution for shorter hair.
Less water to heat up too.
I have a solar shower bag, which is great to heat the water when the sun is hot in the summer, but the water pressure is just not enough for my hair. It's OK to heat water for washing, or washing up, but its sun reliant. No good in the winter, and goes cold quite quickly too... I wanted something that would work in all seasons, at home or at camp.

 

[SaraR]

Chaps with their short hair, (or no hair) are lucky when it comes to this particular bit of cleanliness aren't they? Us long haired sirens need something a bit more effective.
My little set up holds five litres. Which is plenty to get the soap out of my hair properly.

Yeah, but on the upside, by the time the hair has been washed in the shower, the rest of you is clean too.

Five litres is about the minimum volume I can get away with as well, assuming I’m using a 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner or something that rinses out very fast.

In an area with soft water and with the right shampoo, I can actually get away with using tepid water (feeling luke warm to the hand but cold to the head type temperture). Handy for when you forgot to turn the hot water on the night before and you don’t fancy waiting for the kettle to boil.

In hard water areas, all that goes out the window in an attempt to not end up with half the brush still stuck in the hair.

 

[Woody girl]

A hay box, easy to make from almost anything you have, including my improved version using an old Coleman cooler box and my Dutch oven. You can use any pan without long handles. Enamel roasters work too.
Being a plastic interior, I've lined it on the bottom with a bit of hardboard so a hot pan won't melt it.
You can use blankets or towels if you don't have hay.
I've not tried as I don't eat it, but you can apparently bake bread in a hay box.
I'm planning on a solar panel and a small jackery to be able to recharge my rechargeable AA and AAA batteries !
Found out the hard way last winter in the big storm that I couldn't recharge them. I could use my solar lanterns, and my phone, from the small portable solar panel I have, but No way to plug in anything that didn't have a USB port. The battery charger has a three pin plug, so was useless .

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Yeah, but on the upside, by the time the hair has been washed in the shower, the rest of you is clean too.

Five litres is about the minimum volume I can get away with as well, assuming I’m using a 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner or something that rinses out very fast.

In an area with soft water and with the right shampoo, I can actually get away with using tepid water (feeling luke warm to the hand but cold to the head type temperture). Handy for when you forgot to turn the hot water on the night before and you don’t fancy waiting for the kettle to boil.

In hard water areas, all that goes out the window in an attempt to not end up with half the brush still stuck in the hair.

During the big water shortage in Cape Town a few years back I could use less than 5 litres. Showered in a big plastic trug to catch the water, wetted up, water off, soaped up, then washed off. Trug water for the flushing of the toilet.

And seen on many a restaurant toilet door... If it's Brown flush it down, if it's yellow, let it mellow!

 

[TLM]

Showered in a big plastic trug to catch the water, wetted up, water off, soaped up, then washed off. Trug water for the flushing of the toilet.

There are systems that use the so called "gray" water for toilet flushing all the time. It does make a lot of sense instead of using drinking water. It needs to be designed into the building from the start (at least in most cases), there is some extra cost involved but depending on the plumbing plan not necessarily very much,

Some 20 years ago there was a floor drainage system here that had a water-to-water heat exchanger built into it. To work properly one had to have a shower with thermostat. The system reused about 50% of the heat in the warm water. One of the larger manufacturers bought it out, haven't seen it lately.

 

[TeeDee]

The blockading of Kaliningrad is going to make tensions even more increased and some string rhetoric been issued.

Russia warns Lithuania over rail transit sanctions - BBC News

Lithuania banned the transit of some goods to Russia's Kaliningrad region over EU sanctions.

www.bbc.com

 

[GSW]

Possibly a good idea for some, but I have dodgy knees, and struggle a lot with just lighting my woodburner.
Cooking on my knees is not a great option!
I have solved that by havindifferent camping camping gas stoves, and picking up gas whenever I can.
I have a trangia, six bottles of meths, and a small Coleman stove and some Coleman fuel.
I've also got an outbacker woodstove that I can use outside if I ever run out of gas. + a small bbq, and a couple of disposable ones..
I think I'll cope, but I wish I had an aga or rayburn!
I've made an off grid shower using a pump spray that is normaly used for spraying weedkiller, (use a new one!)
Just heat water in large kettle on the outbacker, top up with cold for a comfortable temp, and there is enough for hair washing, and a quick hosedown. Though I have been taught how to wash in a pint of water by an old ww2 desert soldier.. all except my long hair!

Hi there. Just noticed your above post. I fully understand the medical limitations. For me, its both hips and first one in 2003 wasn't done properly and I suffer daily. I keep one of those small gardening kneeling foam rectangles indoors for when I need to 'get down'. So I really appreciated Victor Meldrew's joke when he said, you have to consider what else you need to do while your down there.
Anyway, the Outbacker. Excellent bit of kit heavy though. I bought the 22.5 degree Stainless flue connections so I can attach and use the stove indoors at a push and the diverted flue goes out the back door/window.

 

[Dariet]

The blockading of Kaliningrad is going to make tensions even more increased and some string rhetoric been issued.

Russia warns Lithuania over rail transit sanctions - BBC News

Lithuania banned the transit of some goods to Russia's Kaliningrad region over EU sanctions.

www.bbc.com

it seems there's no more tension, at least there're no more news about it

 

[Laurentius]

Given today's frustration, I think a small yacht for smuggling goods from the continent.

 

[TLM]

Given today's frustration, I think a small yacht for smuggling goods from the continent.

That is always an interesting excercise in commercial geography and maximizing profits while minimizing risks.

 

[ONE]

Full disclosure: I can count the number of times in my adult life that my hair has been longer than a grade four on the fingers of one hand.

I'm simply asking a question.

In a situation where water supply is an issue, regardless of gender and stylistic concerns, would chopping one's locks not be the most expedient and efficient method of remaining safe and clean? I mean... It grows!

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

Full disclosure: I can count the number of times in my adult life that my hair has been longer than a grade four on the fingers of one hand.

I'm simply asking a question.

In a situation where water supply is an issue, regardless of gender and stylistic concerns, would chopping one's locks not be the most expedient and efficient method of remaining safe and clean? I mean... It grows!

I sort of think the same...unless just tie it up and wash it in the wild?

 

[SaraR]

Full disclosure: I can count the number of times in my adult life that my hair has been longer than a grade four on the fingers of one hand.

I'm simply asking a question.

In a situation where water supply is an issue, regardless of gender and stylistic concerns, would chopping one's locks not be the most expedient and efficient method of remaining safe and clean? I mean... It grows!

And have to suffer through that horrible long enough to get in your eyes but too short to tie up stage later on?

 

[Toddy]

@SaraR

My hair is now down to my waist again. I haven't had short hair in nearly forty years. I'm not cutting it now.

Besides, where I live there's no shortage of water. There's a burn runs right along side the garden, there are two major and a couple of middling sized rivers and a huge loch all within walking distance of the house.....and though mostly piped another three burns and I know where the 18/19th century village wells were sited......and it rains, it really does rain. Even today, in the middle of a heatwave, we had rain this morning. Not a lot, but it was rain.

Three weeks no rain around here and we're thinking it's a drought I genuinely don't know how the rest of the world manages without water.
My bother jokes about it, "Scot ? it's written in the contract with the maker, must be rained on twice a day! ".
My Australian SIL (other bother's missus) visited and was horrified at the waste of water that to us is just normality.....and then complained that it rained 12 out of the 14 days she was in Scotland!

The UK on the whole....well the London bit apart.....doesn't have much of a problem with lack of water. We're on Atlantic Islands, a bit of forethought, a decent bit of catchment and there ought to be no problem.

M

 

[gra_farmer]

@SaraR

My hair is now down to my waist again. I haven't had short hair in nearly forty years. I'm not cutting it now.

Besides, where I live there's no shortage of water. There's a burn runs right along side the garden, there are two major and a couple of middling sized rivers and a huge loch all within walking distance of the house.....and though mostly piped another three burns and I know where the 18/19th century village wells were sited......and it rains, it really does rain. Even today, in the middle of a heatwave, we had rain this morning. Not a lot, but it was rain.

Three weeks no rain around here and we're thinking it's a drought I genuinely don't know how the rest of the world manages without water.
My bother jokes about it, "Scot ? it's written in the contract with the maker, must be rained on twice a day! ".
My Australian SIL (other bother's missus) visited and was horrified at the waste of water that to us is just normality.....and then complained that it rained 12 out of the 14 days she was in Scotland!

The UK on the whole....well the London bit apart.....doesn't have much of a problem with lack of water. We're on Atlantic Islands, a bit of forethought, a decent bit of catchment and there ought to be no problem.

M

I am in the south east, and we are on Amber to red alert for water shortages, due to the heat wave and demand. The south east is the water stressed area of the UK, and if things continue, year on year, without long duration effective recharge to groundwater that we need, we will be in a desperate state.

I am interested in water, and understand the hydrogeological and hydrochemistry, and I have been worried about the state of water availability for the last 20 years.

Yet it is taken for granted, and worst yet, a lot of the general public have not got a clue about the processes involved in water supply or the rarity of clean raw water.

 

[Toddy]

Yet there is a great amount of water, it's just not well used. It's over exploited in some areas

I'm not being facile, and I realise the sea change in attitudes, and expenditure necessary, to make best use of the natural resouces available, especially in the South East of England.

That doesn't change my reality that there is no shortage of water. There are a few months when it behoves us all to be a bit more careful, just in case, but we're generally wet.

 

[gra_farmer]

Yet there is a great amount of water, it's just not well used. It's over exploited in some areas

I'm not being facile, and I realise the sea change in attitudes, and expenditure necessary, to make best use of the natural resouces available, especially in the South East of England.

That doesn't change my reality that there is no shortage of water. There are a few months when it behoves us all to be a bit more careful, just in case, but we're generally wet.

Forgot to say I am a little jealous of where you are....

The wife and I have been thinking we will have to move to at some point, and will be looking to moving to higher ground and cooler/wetter.

Any recommendations @Toddy, I know your in Scotland, but open to suggestions from you and all.

 

[Toddy]

Unless you like having your govt (Scottish) recommending that everyone takes VitD supplements, then think hard on moving up here

To us it's home. It's comfortable, it's peaceful, it has everything we need. But then, water apart, so does where you are just now.....

I think the UK needs to build wave power right along the east coast from Yorkshire down, stop the coastal erosion that's going to shred right into the midlands, make use of the energy instead of having it destroy the country.

I think that there needs to be a serious amount of work done in the S.E. re water catchment and drainage/water levels rising. I think we ignore the aquifers at our peril.

If I were to move from here, then I'd move eastwards or maybe up into Perthshire. Lot of family in those areas, they kind of feel like home too.

M