Sacrifice for the drought

I'm not gonna water the lawn this year. I just hope the homeowners association doesn't start busting my balls about it. we are already not flushing toilets for pee and using buckets in the shower.

How's it going Jack.  I was sure you were going to say drink more Pliny instead of water.  But that only helps if they make it out of state. 

I'm doing a lot of the same things mentioned here, especially peeing outside!  That recirculating hot water system would be great.  Not a fan of on demand, but something that I could install to recirculate would be great.  Anybody have a link to one of these systems?

I'm doing a lot of the same things mentioned here, especially peeing outside!  That recirculating hot water system would be great.  Not a fan of on demand, but something that I could install to recirculate would be great.  Anybody have a link to one of these systems?

I was told that hot water recirculating systems are available at Home Depot.  Once installed they have a timer to regulate when they operate to minimize constant reheating the cooled hot water in the uninsulated pipes. On demand work but are a little pricey.

I'm doing a lot of the same things mentioned here, especially peeing outside! 

I did that once when the house bathroom was occupied and my back teeth were starting to float. Living in a close quarters, residential neighborhood, my neighbor really didn't appreciate that view just as they opened their blinds. I'm going to have to try to cut back elsewhere. 

I'm doing a lot of the same things mentioned here, especially peeing outside!  That recirculating hot water system would be great.  Not a fan of on demand, but something that I could install to recirculate would be great.  Anybody have a link to one of these systems?

We had something similar to this installed in house we had built, worked great

http://www.watts.com/pages/whatsnew/IHWRS.asp

I'm doing a lot of the same things mentioned here, especially peeing outside! 

I did that once when the house bathroom was occupied and my back teeth were starting to float. Living in a close quarters, residential neighborhood, my neighbor really didn't appreciate that view just as they opened their blinds. I'm going to have to try to cut back elsewhere. 

I pee in my neighbors yard all the time 

So you may have heard that California is experiencing a drought. Well, we are in a state of "exceptional" drought according to the experts. The attached picture is of Folsom Lake nearby to where I live to give you some perspective. The governor of California has made it mandatory to reduce water use by 25 % beginning immediately.
I plan on doing my share in the following manner...
My drink of choice is scotch and water with several ice cubes. Now it will be scotch with a single cube.
Wine... It takes approximately 160 gallons of water to produce a bottle of wine. Beginning today I will stop drinking California wines and begin consuming French and Italian wines instead.
These are sacrifices I know but we must pull together and do our share! I plan on saving a lot of water.
Here's mud in your eye... albeit 25% drier mud.

I'm not really sure if your joking, or laughing in the face of disaster here.  This issue is real, and one that I don't really find funny at all.

It's clearly gallows humor and the rest of the thread is worth a read.

Lighten up Francis.

What I don't find funny is the inequality across the state in regards to water rationing & mandates!  Though this is "state wide" (I believe), it sure seems like some areas are tighter managed than others.  I know I posted this before (somewhere) ... KSBW recently reported that Santa Cruz county has issued something in excess of $1million in water usage fines where as Los Angeles county has issued only $400.  A bit skewed?

Last night on national news was a story about the CA drought.  They did both ground and aerial views of Palm Springs.  WOW!  Do those guys ever suck up the water!!  Every home had green lawn.  Everywhere were golf courses in emerald green with huge medians on roadways all in grass.  Every home has a swimming pool.  It was surreal to see all that sand, as the aerial camera pulled away from the green oasis.  Fountains were everywhere spewing water dozens of feet in to air to evaporate.  Of course their claim was that it was irrigated with recycled water.  So??!!  What's wrong with treating recycled water into drinking water? 
So here we are, in Northern California, letting our little patches of lawn go brown while the folks in Palm Springs are greener than Ireland. 

My solution;  just like in years past when the bay area was sprayed by helicopter for Med fly, we send helicopters down there to spray Round-Up on their landscapes, especially the golf courses and resorts.    If they won't quit watering their lawns, then kill their lawns. 

So you may have heard that California is experiencing a drought. Well, we are in a state of "exceptional" drought according to the experts. The attached picture is of Folsom Lake nearby to where I live to give you some perspective. The governor of California has made it mandatory to reduce water use by 25 % beginning immediately.
I plan on doing my share in the following manner...
My drink of choice is scotch and water with several ice cubes. Now it will be scotch with a single cube.
Wine... It takes approximately 160 gallons of water to produce a bottle of wine. Beginning today I will stop drinking California wines and begin consuming French and Italian wines instead.
These are sacrifices I know but we must pull together and do our share! I plan on saving a lot of water.
Here's mud in your eye... albeit 25% drier mud.

I'm not really sure if your joking, or laughing in the face of disaster here.  This issue is real, and one that I don't really find funny at all.

You are absolutely right. This is a very serious problem that affects all of us here in California. I was attempting to use humor to bring this topic into focus on this forum for discussion.  I personally have cut back on landscape irrigation. I am in the process of changing existing landscape into more drought tolerant landscape. I have installed more drip irrigation and will be adding an inline hot water recirc. sys. to my hot water heater.  I have low water use toilets and a washer that is designed to use a minimum amount of water. If you have any more suggestions I'd really like to hear from you or any one else.  This problem is not going to go away any time soon.  If I'm not laughing, I'm crying. I choose to laugh instead.
Cheers   

What I don't find funny is the inequality across the state in regards to water rationing & mandates!  Though this is "state wide" (I believe), it sure seems like some areas are tighter managed than others.  I know I posted this before (somewhere) ... KSBW recently reported that Santa Cruz county has issued something in excess of $1million in water usage fines where as Los Angeles county has issued only $400.  A bit skewed?

That's bad. I've heard from other places that it's still business as usual in so many parts of Southern California. Meanwhile we are going to get stuck with rationing and fines here around humboldt bay when we literally have 50 million gallons surplus every single day.

It's like Alice in wonderland.

Far beyond the obvious precious resource topic ... this has far greater ecological, economical & social impacts...  tensions are quite HIGH around the household when it has become a battle regarding water usage, shower times, # of flushes & most of all ... # of laundry loads.

Saw another national news story about rice farmers selling water to SoCal.  The farmer told the reporter he could get $700 an acre foot for the water; more than he could get for the rice he could grow.  Then he said that if he DIDN'T sell the water to LA, they would figure out a way to vote it in so they could get the water for free anyway.  He said, at least this way, he can still have some sort of control over the water.

The fact is; the water allocation for the farmer is for growing rice.  Agriculture.  If he's not going to grow rice, then the water rights should then go to the next Ag farmer and their allocation.  This isn't the farmers water to do with as he pleases, like sell it to LA, it's his to grow rice and if he's not going to grow rice, then we, the citizens of California, have the right to redistribute that water allocation on an Ag basis for the benefit of the purpose of that water. 

Folks, we do not have a water shortage.  No sir!  Not as long as greedy bastards are able to sell water in this manner.  There's plenty of water for the state's residence.  It's OUR tax money that paid for those dams and aquaducts, not the farmers.  Why are they exempt?  Why are they able to sell the water allocated to grow a crop on their land?  Why are we not charging these farmers for storing this water in reservoirs we residential tax payers paid for?  We residents use 25% of the state's water. We pay 100% of the storage and distribution system.  And yet we are the only users who are being demanded to reduce water use.  Why?  Because we don't have the lobbying that the big Ag users have.  We don't own the politicians.   

What I don't find funny is the inequality across the state in regards to water rationing & mandates!  Though this is "state wide" (I believe), it sure seems like some areas are tighter managed than others.  I know I posted this before (somewhere) ... KSBW recently reported that Santa Cruz county has issued something in excess of $1million in water usage fines where as Los Angeles county has issued only $400.  A bit skewed?

That's bad. I've heard from other places that it's still business as usual in so many parts of Southern California. Meanwhile we are going to get stuck with rationing and fines here around humboldt bay when we literally have 50 million gallons surplus every single day.

It's like Alice in wonderland.

On another Board I frequent; about two weeks ago, someone started a thread on whether or not it was time to pull up the lawns in SoCal.  The general consensus was not till it hit the pocket book with overuse fines, amongst one or two cries of "they'll have to rip the lawn from my cold dead hands."   


Arrogance, idiocy and denial.  Everyone points toward mismanagement of water capacity and storage, suggesting resolutions that will take decades to employ.  I would imagine that since they don't see it, it doesn't exist.



Al...on a serious note....I stopped providing a courtesy flush at work last year.  Saves about two gallons a day.  We all have to sacrifice, we will suffer together.