“The Truth About Simple Unhooked Livng”
is a book by Estar Holmes and published through Smashwords – the same people as
my own book, and it can be purchased either by going through the link on here
to my book (when I get a very small commission without detracting from the
author’s share) or direct through Smashwords.
You know the expression “Been there, done
that”? Well this lady has. My pet hate about lifestyle books, particularly
those involving rural life, is where people with a journalistic background and
friends in the right places to promote their books get an international
publishing house to publish and push their writings on something they have as
an idea about, or only limited years of experience. This is not one of them.
Anyone who publishes with Smashwords does not have a publishing company behind
them – apart of course from the unstinting help of the Smashwords team.
Although aimed
primarily at the USA resident, virtually everything suggested by the author
(she does not ram things down your throat and say you must do it this way) is
applicable globally. All good, sound, practical advice from an experienced
person. Much of it is essential reading for those people in urban areas where
they are reliant upon electricity to run their homes. One power out without the
information in the book will cost you a lot more than its price.
I have practiced
what might be called “Simple Hooked up Living” for decades and still learned
from the book. My wife and I have had the need to collect, melt and boil snow for
a cup of coffee; we have had need to make 190 miles round trips for shopping;
bathed under roof runoff in a rainstorm, and a waterfall, etc.; but we prefer
an indoor bathroom and toilet (yes, we have carried buckets of water for
flushing it too) and my wife likes her washing machine and dishwasher. We have
never had to do the things Estar Holmes has merely to survive. I admire her,
and others like her, who either by choice or necessity have managed to do so,
and I thank her for the information on the numerous things included in the book
that we have not had to do. I hope we never need to, but at least we are now
armed with the information if the lights go out quicker than I planned for
in earlier posts – Dec. 2012 and Feb.
2013.
Estar gives a
very generous free sample, but as with all books, this necessarily includes the
background and introductory portion – nevertheless with very sound information
and advice. There is a wealth more in the remainder of the book. Go on, buy it.
Then read it thoroughly, even twice as I did, and then remember and apply the
information in there that will take you through the next failure of your
electricity supply. A few readers might even take things further and decide to
follow either my planned survival strategies for longer term power failures, or
even Estar’s no fail methods whatever happens.
One of the
highlights of the book for me was the ability to get by in life with the
minimum use of potable water. The world at large wastes more than it uses, and
there is a shortage. It is even affecting parts of mainstream USA at the
present time. Think about how you can help to conserve this dwindling essential
of life.
I take every
opportunity to try to persuade everyone that a daily morning shower is one of
the worst modern phenomena ever to have been inflicted upon the planet. I grew
up in Britain, being born at the end of WWII at which time enormous numbers of
houses did not have a bathroom, many not even running water, and those that
did, did not have a shower. Sometime in the 1970s or 80s people began to fit
various contraptions above the bath and were able to shower. When we bought our
Australian sheep and cattle property in 1979 the house had two bathrooms
containing a bath and sink, but no shower. No indoor toilet either. That was
soon fixed. There were people around about who we knew did not have a shower in
the house, sometimes barely enough water to drink either, but it was
commonplace for them to say “I am off home for a shower” as if it was expected
of them to say so.
My present house
did not have a shower cubicle until 2 years ago when we extended the living
space and added an ensuite bedroom. There is another bathroom with a shower
head over the bath. It was 1993 before I owned a house that had a shower and
that was a house we had built for us. None of us died from not having a shower.
So far as I recall nobody smelled particularly bad either.
I have recently
had the misfortune to be hospitalised for a few days (not life threatening and
I will recover) and it was considered essential that every patient had a shower
immediately upon rising in the mornings. Since tens of thousands of Portuguese
houses do not have running water it seemed weird to me that they expected
people who had never showered in their lives to suddenly have to have one every
single morning. Obviously I did not comply with the expectation. I did wash
thoroughly. I was spending the day lounging about on a bed in a pristinely
clean environment so how could I become dirty enough to need a shower every morning?
I was really impressed with the place. Apart from the cleanliness, the food was
good, the staff were good, and the beds were comfortable and fully adjustable
by the patient for inclination and height.
For those of you
who do shower every day, why do you do it? I suspect peer pressure began it
all. Somebody somewhere decided they would boast about their new shower a few
decades ago. Everybody else has to keep up with them, then somebody decided
they would claim to shower every day. Soon everybody had to claim to shower
every day and some people thought they actually had to do it. Talk about
lemmings!!
Potable water is
not in infinite supply. It is extremely costly and wasteful of other finite
resources to make some supplies from really unsuitable water sources. Take a
stand. Stop having as many showers (or baths) and encourage everyone you know
to do likewise. I am not looking forward to the time when I expect that the
lights will go out, because the world is using its resources far too quickly, but
running out of potable water is certain death to all it affects. We must have
water to survive.
