Some of you may or may not know, but I was raised in Alaska. I moved to Nome, Alaska when I was a little girl and spent most of my childhood there before moving to Anchorage (the largest city at ~250,000 people). During the fifth grade, I lived in a small, remote Eskimo Village of White Mountain – about 75 miles Southwest of Nome – population ~200.
Now, this was a LONG time ago, but trust me, I remember my childhood pretty vividly. As I always tell people – “if you don’t think hell freezes over, you’ve never been to Nome, Alaska”.
Of the many experiences, there are some that stand out more than others. Living in White Mountain for that year would be one of them. White Mountain is beautiful. It’s very remote and to this day, I don’t think cell phones work. No roads in or out, life evolves around community, fishing and hunting. But that’s not exactly what this post is about. It’s about my life without running water. Yes, you heard right – no running water.
You see, when I lived there, we had to haul our water up from the river. We’d use buckets and drive down (on our four/three
wheelers or snow machines) or our old drums that collected rain water (our primitive form of what “modern” folk call “rain water harvesting”). We didn’t have flushing toilets, sinks with free flowing water or heck, showers… okay, we did have showers at the Washeteria – but not in our homes. So, I thought I’d take a moment to write about what I remember and what it means to me now, looking back now that I know what sustainability really means.
- Never take water for granted: Most all of our water came from the river. The same river that the sewer from the school was dumped into. Now, I do believe the sewer was dumped downstream and didn’t pose a health threat to our drinking water, but it still makes you think how precious that water is.
- Clothes don’t really need to be washed so often: Not only did NONE of the households have running water thus no washers/dryers, people really weren’t so critical of doing their laundry – at least we weren’t. Yes, we did have access – but who really wants to sit in a laundry mat to do their laundry when you have food to put on the table? And I don’t just mean making a trip to the grocery store, I mean going out into the woods to find that bear or moose! Besides, laundering clothes less often not only saves water and energy, but it also makes clothing last longer — and that all adds up to a closet full of financial savings.
You don’t need as much water in the kitchen as you might think: Without having an even flow of running water, you’ll notice you can easily do more with less. Potatoes and pasta cook fine in half the amount of water called for… you find you reuse water used to cook those potatoes to water plants with. And what about washing the dishes? Ever heard of a kitchen sink with a drain stopper? You fill both up with hot water – one sudsy, one no suds and there you go! You’ll use FAR less water to wash ALL your days worth of dishes than any energy-efficient dishwasher! And you’ll have nice, soft hands, too!- Cold water is so much better than no water, and HOT water is very, very special: Our “bathroom” doubled (if not tripled) as the pantry and storage room in general. It did house our “toilet” – and yes, I mean your typical bucket with toilet seat and lid. It was nothing fancy but it did the job. Ahem… no water needed (not something I’d obviously recommend). But, the water to wash our hands with – it started out hot but by days end, it was cold. We didn’t take the time, money or resources every hour to re-heat the water. How wasteful would that have been? You learn that cold water is just as good as hot. And you know what else, I rarely got sick. No, I didn’t constantly apply antibacterial soap to my hands – I was a dirty tomboy. I played outside ALL the time. We didn’t have video games or cable TV! About 15% of total home heating costs is attributable to heating water for domestic use, and that expense can easily be cut in half through better conservation and a few simple energy-saving devices.
- You don’t need to shower as often as you might think: Since we physically had to go the villages ONE place to
shower/bathe, we didn’t shower every day – or maybe not even every other day. Water was a valuable resource, and again – remember, we were busy people. When we would go to Fish Camp for the summer (we did this EVERY summer, ALL summer long) we took a “spit bath”. No, we didn’t spit in our hands. We would warm up some water in a large bowl and wash ourselves down with a washcloth. If we needed to wash our hair, it was done just about the same way – in that same bowl of hot water. It worked. - Have fun and be respectful! Our water was very important to us. It transported people to/from the village in the summer via boat and snow machine and dogsled in the winter. It got us to our Fish Camps in the summer and provided us with a bounty of fish to help us survive the brutal, cold winters. Luckily, pesticides aren’t needed in most parts of Alaska because temperatures are so cold no pests survive (except the state bird, the mosquito). So you won’t see us using pesticides which then end up in our water streams (granted, we don’t have lawns in the Villages, either). You’ll see us playing water sports and swimming in the summer. We respect our water because we can’t survive without it.
Spending those many years in Alaska taught me a lot… but, it took me leaving the beautiful state to realize all that I learned. I realized after the fact all that I had taken for granted and all that I miss. Hauling water up from the river in the dead of winter, taking spit baths at Fish Camp… those are the memories I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.
