Originally Posted by Grambi

Don't have a lawn--the ranch grows right up to our front and back doors. After 30 years of living in homes where we did all of the work of maintaining a yard, I decided I never wanted to mow, mulch, fertilize, water, prune or worry about a lawn again. I now live in our retirement home on a 200 acre ranch. We are still in an "exceptional" drought (the worst there is) and it just burns me up to drive by homes where water is obviously wasted with watering a lawn. The attitude of many is "it's my water, I paid for the well and I will use it like I want". What they don't realize (out here in the country) is that their well may be drawing from the same vein of water that other people are getting water from. So many ranchers have been losing their wells and having to pay to have them drilled deeper. Our well is almost dry and we had to have the livestock removed from the ranch. Fortunately we have invested in a rainwater harvesting system and have a 20,000 gal tank which right now contains about 17,000 gal of water. We can collect about 2400 gal of water with each inch of rain. I conserve like a maniac. My showers consist of getting wet, turning off water and soaping up then turning the water back on for a quick rinse. Haven't mopped the floor in weeks. Only wash laundry when I can fill the washer, etc, etc, etc. I firmly believe that water will be a defining issue of this century and that people aren't going to value it for what it is worth until they are either no longer getting it so cheaply, or they run out.

My apologies for preaching from my soapbox but this is an issue that I am passionate about. Thank you for reading and please appreciate every drop of water that comes out of your faucets!

Originally Posted by Grambi

Thank you, Crazy Quilting Robin. I appreciate the encouragement to continue my rant. I went back after posting and read several pages that I had skipped, and I fear I may have insulted a couple of people. If I did, please accept my apology. Those of you with wells, please, please, please consider who you may be "sharing" that water with and use it wisely.

Originally Posted by earthwalker

Definitely do continue....I am:). Also, heavy use of chemicals and fertilizers muck up our precious water. You can still have a beautiful, chemical free garden....just be careful in your choice of plants and invest a little time working out ways your household can function and utilise every precious little drop. Hope all of you get relief from the heat and your farms and your animals get through the tough times. Nice to see a lot of us are remembering our wild visitors.....amazing how a few bird baths and shallow bowls in sheltered spots buried part way in the ground can sustain all the insects and wild things.

Originally Posted by cr12cats

in the desert in ca we put a blue tubing hose on the hose of the washer with a hose clamp and let the water go outside the garage onto the grass or plants from when we did laundry.