Corny Can Be Good

My husband told me today that saving water is not going to catch on until we have a system where each household is only given a certain amount of water each day. He said he is sure that it is going to come to that some day. Am I a terrible person for thinking that that might not be the worst thing in the world? I know many people would think that's Un-American, but when I think of the world that my son will have to live in if we don't start getting serious, I get so scared, I'm not really concerned what that kind of label that statement puts on me.

There's actually a guy on facebook named Kevin Freedman in Winnepeg who challenged himself to live on 25 liters a day. Wanting to raise awareness about people who suffer from water shortages, like refugees who live on 15-20 (sometimes as little as 5) liters a day, this limited water supply was to be used for everything from cooking to bathing to cleaning. EVERYTHING. You might want to look him up.

Anywway, back to the latest step in water conservation for this house. Last night I made corn on the cob. Only four cobs took at least two gallons of water (Hmmm, no I didn't measure. Maybe I should have. Sorry, I'm learning). Anyway, when it came time for cleanup, I saw this big pot of water and knew if I pour this corny smelling water down the drain, I'm going to have to confess it to the whole world on this blog. So I left it there, sitting in the pot on the stove. Every time I passed it, I knew that I was going to have to think of a way to use this water (Oh, I should mention that my plants are VERY well taken care of from the other water I'm saving, and the lawn gets watered by the landscape company for the building. So that would just be wasting it too.) Then at lunch, I made a bunch of stuff that stuck to the pan that would be a pain in the butt to get off. Finally, I figured it out. I could use the water to soak the pans with the sticky stuff in it. Is it a sign that my life is getting too boring when stuff like this makes me happy? (Please don't answer that!)

Okay, so if you haven't fallen asleep by now (I know when I haven't written the most riveting entry!) I just want to leave you with an anecdote. My little one hates it when I use the garbage disposal. So when I opened the cabinet today, he gave me the look. The look that says, "oh gosh, here it comes..." But given my new policy - no more garbage disposal - I told him not to worry, that I wasn't going to use it anymore, and started to explain why. But he interrupted me and said, "Because it wastes water." I'm so proud. It makes me really happy to know that, while for me, these things are going to be tough to learn, for my son, it's going to become second nature to him. (He also knew that the pit from the plum he ate was to go in our new compost garbage bag, but now I'm just bragging...)