The laundry room!
5,000 gallon water tank.
Gutter from the roof. It goes to the water tank.
POWER
Woodstock is not connected to any public water or power. This is absolute living “Off the Grid”! There is power available way down the long driveway at the main road. After visiting here and now living here, it would seem odd to be be able to flip a light switch on or have an electric toaster even. Woody (Susan’s dad) built two houses here and both are powered by twelve solar panels which are connected to 6 huge storage batteries under the main house (they store 900 amps, if that means anything to you). On cloudy days, it is necessary to run the 3.5 K generator for a few hours to boost the batteries. On sunny days the sun will put in about 80 amps which is about 9% of their capacity (thanks for the info Woody!). Typically there is enough power to keep one or two lights on at a time in the evening. and power enough for short periods of internet use (satellite). All cooking and hot water is done with propane. Needless to say, we do not have dishwasher, microwave, oven, or other electric appliances. I must admit I do miss the electric toaster! We use the old fashion “camping toaster” designed to sit on a fire or propane stove to make toast. It works, and I am thankful for that, but it takes forever! and you cannot walk away or it gets burnt and then you have to start all over again. Surprisingly enough I really have enjoyed the simplicity of life without all of the gadgets.
WATER
All of our water comes from rainwater which is caught on the metal roofs of the house and fed into a gutter and pipe system to a 5,000 holding tank. the roof size determines the amount of water that is caught. On these two roofs we get 1,000 gallons of water from 25 ml of rain (close to one inch).
The entire water tank is filled with 5 inches of rainwater. Showers here during the rainy times are just as long as you want them to be, but during the rest of the year, water use is an issue. You have to take 3-5 minute showers and you become hyperaware of any water dripping or potentially wasted water. This means catching the cold water from the faucet for drinking or watering plants while you are waiting for the hot water to come out, and doing any laundry in town at the laundry mat so we don’t drain the tank down too far.
Honest to god, this is a beautiful set up and feels like a retreat once we get the work done!
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