Without Water

I woke up this morning to discover that the water from the tap was coming out as a mere trickle. Oh boy, was it just our house or the entire village? I walked Harold up to the babysitter's before work when I discovered it was everyone and that school was canceled for the day. I was thankful to have the time to put the house back together after all this storming and flooding business but I would much rather have running water than a day off.



First thing I did was have Harold and the neighbor boy shovel some snow into tubs for me to bring in the house. Melting snow is really not the most efficient way to get water but I was looking for a quick solution. Some people regularly collect rain water or have a large garbage bin with pond water at their house on a daily basis but we prefer the stuff that so conveniently comes from the tap. That left us high and dry, literally, in the water department.



The snow worked fine for little jobs like making oatmeal.
Step one: fill a small pot with snow, bring to a boil.



Half way through the day, the Crocketts offered to bring down some water for me. It was immediately put to use since the toilet was in serious need of a flush. Sorry it that's a bit too much information but water is mostly used for getting rid of ick. Ick in the bathroom, ick on our dishes, ick on our bodies and right now I'm feeling pretty ick to be honest.



Hand sanitizer, baby wipes, paper towels and disinfecting wipes were very, very useful today.



C.O. picked a few of these up during his shopping run in Nome today. Oh ya, my husband finally made it home after missing out on this, this and now this. He really did feel bad about not being here. He made it up to me by bringing home Subway subs so I didn't have to cook dinner and make more dishes that would then have to be washed . . . with water . . . hot water.


These are C.O.'s bags to prove that he is actually home.

It was a great sense of relief to have him pull up outside the house on the ATV. Unfortunately, he was home for all of two minutes before he took off to see if he could help the water and sewer crew work on this problem. His engineering background, mechanic experiences and all around problem solving skills will be of great help I'm sure. He came home quickly for dinner and was right back at it. I think it is going to be a long night for all those guys.

People are getting a little worried around town. Will it get fixed? If so, how long will it take? Will we spend the winter without running water? Geesh, I hope not. I sure love showers and flushing my toilet.

It wasn't so long ago, 9 years to be exact, that people in Brevig Mission lived without running water. In fact, a few people on the beach still do without. So, we'd all survive, we'd all manage but once you have this luxury we call running water, it's really hard to go back.

~AnnMarie