Nicole from living off grid full#

We've got a burgeoning ecosystem of fruit trees, berries, greens, squash, herbs and more out our back door, thanks to our gray water system. It's relatively small, but it's something of a miracle. These difficulties are easily offset by our garden. We now have a routine down that's relatively painless and prevents catastrophic clogs, but the lessons were learned the hard way. However, it requires regular maintenance that isn't always pleasant, and when anything in the system clogs or leaks, it instantly becomes a really bad day. Without getting into too many gross details, just know that a bathroom with a compost toilet is actually less stinky than a regular one (once you get the ventilation system dialed in), and it's better for the environment.

This actually isn't as bad as it sounds, most days. By March, the water level was low enough that every week or two I had to haul a few hundred gallons from a community deep well about five miles down the road, via a tank in the back of my pickup truck.

Nicole from living off grid full#

The last monsoon season filled our tanks almost to the top, lasting us a full six months. I've had it tested for all kinds of possible contaminants and microbes it's about as pure as can be, and without chlorine or any other chemicals. Rainfall runs through multiple screens on the way into the tank, then again as it's pumped into the house before finally going through a filter on its way to our taps inside. That water is piped to two huge tanks partially buried in the backyard, which combined hold more than 3,500 gallons. This means putting gutters on anything that might catch rain, from the roof of our house to our solar panels to our shed and our patio cover. It's imperative to catch and store as much of that abundance when it comes. Most precipitation comes during the monsoon season each summer. It's remarkable how quickly you become conscious of your water consumption when you can connect each gallon to your own physical effort.Īs in many places, rain doesn't come in equal amounts from month to month here.