Running (to get) Water

We have a beautiful sunny day on Sunday!  Quite appropriate, huh?

We moved a whole lot of snow, because it had snowed at least 6 inches Friday & Saturday.

I still can't believe how much snow is out there.

We must have at least a foot of snow out there...

The sun stays to the South now.  That photo above is facing South, and was taken at around 2:30 PM, so it's not sunset...  At least we know in a couple of months, the days will start getting longer again...

Jeff was given some ground moose meat the end of last week.  I used a pound of it to make Sour Cream Noodle Bake on Sunday.  The meat was very dark (moose is very lean).  I couldn't even tell you how it tastes, because it was in a casserole.  But I liked the dish.  Maybe we'll use some of the meat to make moose burgers, and we will really be able to taste it then.

the view from the kitchen sink

We like to watch "Living Alaska" and "Buying Alaska".

It really bothers me when they look out the kitchen window and say, "Now that's Alaska!" when it's just a view of trees.

If a big huge mountain view was outside my window, yes I would say that.

But not just because there's a forest back there...

it was nice to see a sky with color!

I'm not saying it's not pretty, just look at that...

One of the things that a lot of people asked me before I moved up here was if we would have running water.

Yes, we have running water!

The property has a well, but unfortunately, it's non-potable water.

That means don't drink it. 

There's too many particles in the water to be safe.

Luckily it's just fine for things like laundry, dishes, showers, toilets.

But for drinking, we have to run and get water.  And when you want to do things like make pasta, you are aware of just how much water you go through.

On Sunday we ran and got water.

The well we get drinking water from is close to the house, probably about 7 minutes away.  

But the road is not maintained and oh my gosh you don't want to be going on that road in a vehicle that's low to the ground!

The well isn't locked, but I really wanted to get there during the daylight (I wasn't aware that we still had 5 gallons left).  These photos were taken around 5:45PM.

We took all the containers out of the Jeep and placed on the ground, with the lids off.

The water is free, but you have to pay for the pump.  We easily fill up our containers for $1.  Jeff also put another $1 in the machine for the next user.  When we got water a month ago, there were 4 quarters in the machine, so he was paying it forward.

Unfortunately the hose shut-off is not near the end of the hose.  When it came time to fill up that one gallon jug you see in the Jeep, I handled the shut-off and Jeff held the containers.

It's not a difficult job, but I can see how this could get old quick.  

Especially when it's cold or bad weather out.

I'm hoping to eventually live somewhere with potable running water, that we don't have to run and get!