By Valarie Schwartz

Good news arrived in the mail last week with the OWASA bill: The goal of using only 1,000 gallons of water in my two-person household was reached. With the extra cooking and out-of-state guests in December, I’d prepared myself for it to remain at 2,000 gallons. This assuages my guilt over forcing a guest away from the sink when she stood there letting the water run down the drain while washing dishes.

“Step away from the sink,” I calmly said, while reaching over her shoulder and abruptly shutting off the water. She had already been warned about the drought and my obsession with not wasting water. That was the last time she tried that.

Last week, before Wednesday’s anticipated rain that didn’t come, I emptied one of my two rain barrels so there would be room for more collecting and so plants could get a head start. While repeatedly dipping my watering can into the barrel and casting it across the beds, I thought of the rain barrel-making session that OWASA provided in December, a workshop so popular that Paula Thomas said two more had been scheduled; both, planned for Jan. 30, are booked — with a waiting list of 52.

Not only do the recycled pickle barrels, provided by the county’s Mark Ray, have screened lids but also spigots at the bottom for attaching a hose to and watering from, and an additional hole (with cap) near the top for directing flow into another collection source once the barrel is filled (which happens quickly when situated in the right spot under a roof on a rainy day). Every gardener needs at least one.

These ponderings bring to mind the things we’ve learned during this latest drought.

We’ve learned it’s okay to:

• Wear clothes repeatedly (unless smelly or obviously dirty);
• Skip one rinse cycle on top-loading washing machines (set a timer to catch it);
• Toss yesterday’s leftover dog water onto a flowerbed (on warm days only);
• Wash hair once a week (think of the products we save);
• Keep a container next to the kitchen sink and pour the final rinse water from washing pots, etc. into it for soaking the next dirty items;
• Save the water as the shower heats up for flushing toilets and watering indoor plants;
• Use a little of that warming-up water to go ahead and soap up so that when it gets warm enough, you can go straight to rinse;
• Save the pasta water for washing dishes and watering plants;
• Have a “lawn” made up of natives (grasses, flowers, ground covers — weeds);
• Put every receptacle you own on the deck, patio or other impervious surface when rain’s coming to more deeply water plants and trees afterwards.

It’s okay not to:

• Wash our cars;
• Flush every time;
• Bathe everyday;
• Shave (at least until spring, ladies).

One more point I’ve not seen mentioned: Making electricity requires water (think about it — every fuel plant you’ve ever seen was next to a body of water), therefore, wasting electricity wastes water. So switch to low-energy light bulbs (send your incandescent bulbs to a local temple — that’s what gets stomped on during a marriage ceremony — Mazel tov!); leave on only enough lights after dark to accomplish what you’re doing and prevent tripping over the dog; and (my downfall) turn off your computer overnight and unplug battery chargers and appliances when not in use.

We’ve all learned or been reminded that water, that most precious of resources, comes through the whims of Nature, which we humans have messed with to the point of changing her patterns and making us suffer in return.

We either change our ways or start building desalination plants along our coasts to pipe water across the nation. Hmmm, maybe that’s the answer to rising shorelines from the melting ice cap. We can drink our oceans.

If you aren’t going to a workshop and want to purchase rain barrels, contact Mark Ray at 636-0617 or m-ray@mindspring.com

Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com.