Welcome back to Manley Hot Springs, Alaska.
In this Part 6 we will show you how we manage water while up at our remote cabin 160 road miles West of Fairbanks, Alaska.In order for each of us to survive as living beings, first and foremost, we must have air to breathe. No air, no human beings.
Right behind our need for air comes our need for water. Yes indeed, we can go far longer without water than we can without air, but water definately ranks number two in importance.
I'll stop here and not go into food and clothing and shelter with heat etc.
Up in remote interior Alaska, few cabins have running water. Yes indeed, some do have running water as a result of a water well within the confines of their cabin's footprint but most do not.
For our cabin we run by truck two miles to a community water well to fetch our water. In the winter, this is a real issue because at temperatures approaching minus 60°F one does not want to be running their vehicle. The answer in winter is to melt snow.
Not so in the warm weather months.
When I winter-up at the cabin, I can store just at one hundred fifty gallons of water. So I 'water-up' the cabin in the Autumn and when the snow flies, I simply have to produce 'make up water' to replace what I use.
Here we go to our community water well to 'water up the cabin' for our visit.
Basically I use ten, five gallon water jugs, that I fill at the well to transport water to the cabin. You can see them on the porch eagerly waiting to get-to-work ("It's what we do Dad").
Some times I take an addional 10 gallon stainless steel stock pot (in the right foreground of the below photo) to carry additional water.
Over the bridge and to the community water well we proceed.
Our well is ahead on the right.
Below you see our community water well house with our Chevrolet Suburban parked beside it. Our water is closely monitored by the State of Alaska for safety and quality.
On the left side of the well house you can see the blue hose that brings water up from the well into the containers we are using to haul water.
Below you see the above blue hose ready to fill our five gallon water jugs.
A look at where the hose originates near the roof of the well house.
In the above and below photos, please notice the 'wooden sticks' on top of the blue water jugs. We'll come back to them after the next photos below.
In the above photo, above the water jug, and to the left of the blue hose, and below and to the left of the electrical box with the red warning sign on it, is the switch you press to begin the pump at the bottom of the well to deliver water. The rate of filling a jug varies. At its maximum pumping capacity, it takes about 45 to 50 seconds to pump 5 gallons of water to fill one of the blue jugs.
Back to the above 'wooden sticks' on top of the water jugs above.
A full, five gallon, water jug weighs just over forty pounds (41.65 pounds to be precise). At my age, this is a heavy weight for me to lift and to then 'handle'. I not only have to lift each jug up, but then I have to place each jug into our truck.
Each of the 'wooden sticks' is carefully 'calibrated'. When I am filling a jug, I can turn off the well pump, and then insert one of my 'calibrated wooden sticks' down into the water jug and tell by the level of water on the stick pretty precisely how much water is in the jug.
My goal is to fill each jug to the 3 gallon mark (25 pounds). With my years of experience doing this I can pretty much tell the amount of water in a jug by how long the pump runs. I turn on the well pump switch and, using a stop-watch, let it run for about 17 seconds. I then double check myself with my calibrated sticks.
Just in case one of you is carefully following along here, when I have the ten gallon stainless steel stock pot along, I do not fill it to its capacity. I manouver the water hose into the back of the truck to fill it. Then I remove its water with a large dipper and a funnel into one gallon xerox jugs back at the cabin. So I don't have to lift it.
Sometimes, when I go to the water well, I install a trailer hitch mounted luggage rack onto the Suburban and haul water on the rack often after loading water inside the Suburban as well.
Looking at the below photos, you can see why I can no longer lift and carefully place 40 pound water jugs. My back simply will not 'stand for such straining'.
When I get back to the cabin, I back my truck right up to the porch. Thus I don't have to lift the water jugs very far to get them onto the porch where I will then transfer their water into one gallon Clorox Bottles.
I take hold of the jugs handle, inhale a deep breath, and then lift and pivot the jug onto the porch in one smooth motion. Trust me, after years of doing this, I have-it-down-pat.
Now comes the real work. I have to decant the water from the jugs into smaller containers (one gallon Clorox Bottles) that I can use on a daily basis to use the water.
In the photo below you see where the water ends up in the cabin.
OK back out onto the porch we go.
I have two major tools I use. A large red funnel. And one gallon pitchers.
First I fill the one gallon pitchers with water from the water jug. Then I fill each one gallon Clorox Bottle.
Below is what my process often actually looks like!! Yes Oh Yes!! This process is a lot of work.
On the odd chance one of you is interested, I have 32 of the one gallon Clorox Bottles. They are each numbered from 1 up to 32. I then empty and use them in numerical order because I want to keep the water circulating and not allow it to possibly stagnate.
In a small village like Manley Hot Springs, if you ask for help, you will get help. Back in the summer of 1998, as I was devising my above water-system, I went to the owner of the Hot Springs.
In the above and below photos, Patti is deciding which tub she wants to sit in. The tubs begin about 107°F and drop to about 103°F. Yes indeed, the hot water is from a natural hot spring.
In keeping the hot springs clean for the public, she uses Clorox by the case. She was happy to have me take a bunch (thirty two of them to be exact) of one gallon empties off her hands.
By the way, in the winter, not only do I have the Clorox Bottles filled to commence the winter season, I also have the blue water jugs filled to capacity as well.
Well that-is-that for the subject of water at the cabin.
I figure that I lift each one gallon of water about seven times from the well house until I use it.
The bottom line : You MUST have the physical capability to do what it takes to live in the remote interior of Alaska especially when you get into the winter months.
At my stage of life, when it comes to the winters, I no longer have the required stamina and energy nor do I have the willingness to do-what-it-takes. Just the 160-mile drive (each way) into Fairbanks and back to Manley, to get provisions every 4 to 6 weeks is extremely taxing.
I would not-trade, for any money, the experiences I have had during the past 22-years that I've owned the cabin.
Yes! This Post got-away-from-me!
Smiles from Patti and myself.
What happens to the left-over water when you shut down the cabin and leave? Does it freeze or do you empty all the containers?
ReplyDeleteOh yes we empty it. For this trip we pretty well knew what our usage would be and did not have to empty much if any. BUT other times I have left a jug or maybe two perhaps halfway full and they froze and thawed just fine. Good water for hand and dish washing. Smiles .. Cap
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