Thread: Winter Water Pipes Question - Help a Southern Boy

I think that what Tim says is right. Unless you live in LA where there is a smog cloud or something like that I would just let it melt and drink it. In Florida you can consider rain as distilled water. During a hurricane the water is very often not safe out of the tap if it is running but there is plenty of rain so collect and drink it if needed. In reality, drink water out of the toilet if you have to and worry about infection or contamination later if it gets desperate. Better to fight infection than die of dehydration. Not that you should have to worry about that. Clearly boiling it is a good preventative measure but you're probably alright without doing that.
As Tim says you sound like you can handle yourself. Godspeed to you. Hope you get it whipped soon.

Originally Posted by planeden

So no water and the snow is starting to melt. They say everyone should have water again "through the weekend". I filled a bathtub with snow for non-potable and in case of emergency potable.

Just for fun I cobbled together a still from an old Dutch oven and aquarium tubing. I'm not sure I have rum runners in my line, but if I do I hope they're proud.

This is kinda like closing the barn door after the horses left but, I’m not a prepped like these idiots on tv, yet I try to be prepared and one of the things I have is kinda handy. It’s a water bladder that fits in your tub, will hold about 75 gallons, fill it up when things look like trouble or if your city warns of a shutdown. It has a little siphon pump and hose so you can flush your toilet and draw water to wash up. As for drinking and cooking, cases of water are in or storage room. Not to say I’m belittling the situation but I’ve been thru serious shutdowns like this in my past and I try to mitigate the problems. One reason we have had our generators on the last few houses, never liked being vulnerable

Water is back.

Paul, I see what you're saying. If I'm lost in the woods I'll drink water from whatever nasty hole I can find and just spit the worms out. Well, if I have food, otherwise I'd eat the work too. But, if I have means to boil it, I'll do that. Wish I could take credit for it, but we've got hot and cold boiled water taps here (two igloo drink containers).

Tcrid, that is a good idea. We just got lucky this time that we noticed when it started going out and filled a bunch containers. After something like this we always say "we should...". But then we don't. I'll have to look into one of those bladders.

Originally Posted by planeden

Water is back.

Paul, I see what you're saying. If I'm lost in the woods I'll drink water from whatever nasty hole I can find and just spit the worms out. Well, if I have food, otherwise I'd eat the work too. But, if I have means to boil it, I'll do that. Wish I could take credit for it, but we've got hot and cold boiled water taps here (two igloo drink containers).

Tcrid, that is a good idea. We just got lucky this time that we noticed when it started going out and filled a bunch containers. After something like this we always say "we should...". But then we don't. I'll have to look into one of those bladders.

It sounds like things are slowly getting back to normal, I'm happy for you. At least you'll have a good story to tell.

Well then this is your chance to quit thinking and do something,

Oh good, glad to hear it.

I have looked at the price of bottled water compared to cheap wine.

Maybe we should all keep 100 to 200 gallons of wine in our basements?

On second thought disregard this as i don't want the price of cheap wine to increase with demand.

What makes you think I don’t keep big stores of wine? When it comes to alcoholic drinks I buy in bulk

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Well then this is your chance to quit thinking and do something,

Speaking of which, I just saw this by the register in Home Depot.



Might not be a bad thing to add to the list.

The bladder is a cool idea TC. Never herd of that one.