A bathtub full of water...

Over the weekend, I blogged about filling the bathtub with water in preparation for a hurricane. I talked with a friend, and she agreed that she used to do the same thing and we both wondered why nobody seemed to do that anymore.

I figure it's germaphobia. If people are going around drinking bottled water when there's no problem, they're not going to want to drink water out of the bathtub. If they are constantly using antibacterial soap, bathtub water is a big stretch. I checked the web.

NOAA's hurricane flyer advises filling the bathtub. BUT it says that you should not drink the water. Ready.gov also advises filling the tub (for sanitary purposes). So... what about drinking water? Okay, I admit that drinking water from the bathtub is not particularly appealing. I would definitely be sure to clean the tub first. But several sites advise filling large containers of water, presumably for drinking. NOAA recommends a gallon of water per day.

With all the government emphasis lately on disaster planning, it doesn't seem like many people are prepared for disaster. Why are people in non-devestated areas running out of food after just a few days? How long could you eat out of your pantry? (Granted... without being able to cook because the electricity and maybe the gas are out).

Austin is hosting almost 2000 evacuees from the hurricane, so we hear about the problems all the time. Many people have lost their homes and have nothing to go back to. But I don't understand some of the problems in the western areas of Houston. Losing electricity shouldn't cause total chaos. We shouldn't have to pass out MREs after just a few days (Again, I am NOT talking about the people who lost their homes.)

Before the hurricane, my dad went to the store and bought some bread and peanut butter and gatorade to tide him over. He came to stay with me during the storm, but he went back the day after to check on the house and was without electricity for 3 days. He ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, but he had food.

This whole situation shows that people are not taking disaster planning seriously. Everybody should have some sort of stockpile of food. Maybe not enough for a year (I'm not that hardcore), but at least enough for a week. And some way to cook it, if it needs cooking. We should think about water, too. If a hurricane is coming, fill large containers with water. Fill the bathtub. It could take FEMA a while to arrive. It could be useful to know how to purify water or how to build a fire, or to own a camp stove. We shouldn't have to be out in the streets begging for stuff.

Finally, another note on the water....
My husband is from Central America. The area in which his family lives is notorious for water shortages. When I say shortage, I mean that at certain times of the year, they can be without running water for a week or more. When the water comes down the pipe, people fill up large (clean) trashcans, water bottles, and a giant sink that is used for washing. With careful use, this will last until the water comes again. When I visited his family, I used a bowl dipped in a trash can full of water to "shower". Babies were bathed in small bathtubs filled from the giant sink. Dishes are washed carefully -- rinse them all first, soap them, rinse again. There is no water wasted. His family is a normal family. They do not live in poverty, but they have learned how to deal with an almost constant "disaster". We could learn from some of these techniques.

BBQ Etiquette & Dishwashing

Today we barbecued with the neighbors, and it brought up a few of the green issues that always come up with picnics/BBQs:

1. Should we bring our own plates/silverware or use the disposables provided by the host? (If I know ahead of time, I always bring my own stuff). I try not to make a big deal about it, but sometimes I really stick out.

2. What should we eat? Normally, we only eat "happy" free-range meat, but that is not usually the fare at a BBQ. We bring our own, but everyone shares. On this issue, I would feel sort of weird refusing to eat other people's food (but having them share mine...I'm not going to refuse to share it). What do you do? Maybe the health benefits of friendship outweigh the badness of the antibiotics etc. in the meat? I like to think so.

3. Recycling? Few people recycle at BBQs here. This evening we collected the recycling and brought it home. Some of it was already in the trash, but the trash was mostly styrofoam plates (pretty clean ones), so it wasn't really gross. C said "I'm really weird about this... do you mind if I recycle the bottles?" It led to a little chat about recycling, but no one seemed to think we were freaks or anything.

Any comments or suggestions? I'm curious to see what other people do. One thing that did cut down on the waste at this BBQ was the fact that it was almost entirely finger food. Now that's pretty smart. Not something you could do every time, but really handy, especially with little kids.

Dishwashing
Of course, once you bring those plates home from the BBQ, you have to wash them. BLAH! It's my most hated chore. We don't have a dishwasher, so we wash them all by hand. But if we had a choice, is that the best choice?

Dishwasher vs. Hand-washing
Treehugger posted about this a while ago and found that using the dishwasher uses less energy and less water (unless, perhaps, your dishwasher is very old). For this to be the case, you should not pre-rinse the dishes and should not use the dry cycle.

Hand-washing:
So what do you do if you don't have a dishwasher (or yours is not efficient)? How much water is used during hand-washing really depends on how you do it. There are 3 methods (that I can think of):
A. Run the warm water. Wash each dish with a sponge, rinse it off.
B. Fill a sink with warm soapy water. Wash the dishes. Rinse in another sink (or refill the sink).
C. Wet the dishes. Wash them with soapy sponge. Rinse in sink.

Method C is what my husband does. He is amazing at conserving water. I honestly do not see how a dishwasher could use less water. Method A is the method I use. It is a terrible wasteful method, but pretty fast, and I do not have to put my hands in funky water. Next time I wash the dishes, I will try method B -- the full sink method -- with a pair of gloves.

Another important factor is the type of dish soap used. Most dish soap is phosphate free, whereas most dishwasher detergent is not (point for hand-washing!). You can also avoid plastic packaging by using a bar of soap to wash the dishes. Just dab the soap with a wet sponge and voila! -- soapy sponge. I thought this was totally revolutionary, but then my husband told me that's what he grew up doing. (He's from Central America and thus is wise in water conservation and not wasting stuff.)

Any suggestions on dishwashing? What do you do?