Water Friendly Shaving

So, we haven't had a lot of rain in the last month or so and, being on a well, we're getting worried about how much water we use.  Aside from all our usual water saving ways that we have, I realized how much water I end up using when I shave! :O  The water to soak the brush, the water to heat my scuttle, ect ect ect.  To that end I have adjusted the way that I normally shave to try and cut down on how much water I use per shave.

I don't bowl lather now in my scuttle, my Satin Tip black fibre is the one brush(of two ) that I own that I like to face lather with, so, face lather it is.  And I enjoy it so that helps!

Because I don't bowl lather and I'm using a synthetic brush, I don't need to soak my brush, I use the water from blooming my brush instead

I'm faster on my face rinsing between passes and after the last pass.

I cold water shave more often, my den is at the end of the house so it takes forever to get hot water

That's how I have managed to help save water so far, anyone else trying to do this?  Or has done this and have other ways to help save water?

So, we haven't had a lot of rain in the last month or so and, being on a well, we're getting worried about how much water we use.  Aside from all our usual water saving ways that we have, I realized how much water I end up using when I shave! :O  The water to soak the brush, the water to heat my scuttle, ect ect ect.  To that end I have adjusted the way that I normally shave to try and cut down on how much water I use per shave.

I don't bowl lather now in my scuttle, my Satin Tip black fibre is the one brush(of two ) that I own that I like to face lather with, so, face lather it is.  And I enjoy it so that helps!

Because I don't bowl lather and I'm using a synthetic brush, I don't need to soak my brush, I use the water from blooming my brush instead

I'm faster on my face rinsing between passes and after the last pass.

I cold water shave more often, my den is at the end of the house so it takes forever to get hot water

That's how I have managed to help save water so far, anyone else trying to do this?  Or has done this and have other ways to help save water?

How old and deep is your well and if I may ask what state are you in?  We live in the country and have a well and a septic tank as I'm sure you do also and I've never been worried about my well running dry even in drought years.  One year we were in a severe drought and I had my well tested and the test revealed that not only could I water my lawn, I could probably do so every day and not worry about the well running low.  Of course I left my yard brown because watering it that year was going to create mud at that point, but I was really surprised and how much water was in my well even that year when it was super super dry.  Final note, rain and well levels don't usually go in hand.  The amount of water needed to enter your well generally isn't antiquated with rain fall.  Unless your well is super shallow.

I'm actually in Ontario Not sure the exact depth, but it's a dug well at 4 tiles deep if that means anything to anyone and we have barely one tile of water, when we should have 2 at this time of year on average. I might be overly cautious on this, but I'd rather be safe than sorry This doesn't happen normally, like I said, but at times it can make us worry.

I changed things to make my shave less water intensive as well. Not because of a drought, but just to be less wasteful.

First, I stopped shaving in the shower. I did that when I used cartridges and got totally out of the habit while learning the DE.

Then, I stopped filling up the sink. Now I just run the water specifically when I'm wetting my brush or rinsing my razor.

I don't really worry about the water to heat a scuttle or to soak a boar brush, because that's just a few ounces each. You would end up using that much if you let the shower beat on your back for an extra few seconds. Most of the time, though, I face-lather with a badger or synthetic anyway.

I'm actually in Ontario  Not sure the exact depth, but it's a dug well at 4 tiles deep if that means anything to anyone and we have barely one tile of water, when we should have 2 at this time of year on average.  I might be overly cautious on this, but I'd rather be safe than sorry  This doesn't happen normally, like I said, but at times it can make us worry.

It sounds like you have a dug well instead of a drilled well? In that case I could see where you would have concern about it drying since a dug well is much much much more shallow than a drilled well. Typically if you run a dug well dry the only option is to have water hauled in fill the well 3/4 full until Mother Nature does the job

I'm actually in Ontario  Not sure the exact depth, but it's a dug well at 4 tiles deep if that means anything to anyone and we have barely one tile of water, when we should have 2 at this time of year on average.  I might be overly cautious on this, but I'd rather be safe than sorry  This doesn't happen normally, like I said, but at times it can make us worry.

It sounds like you have a dug well instead of a drilled well? In that case I could see where you would have concern about it drying since a dug well is much much much more shallow than a drilled well. Typically if you run a dug well dry the only option is to have water hauled in fill the well 3/4 full until Mother Nature does the job

Ya, it's a dug well.  We have a drilled well at our small camp and it's 120 feet deep arti... uh... artisan(sp?), so we don't worry about that one : But, thankfully, by being careful the house well is holding steady at this level, coming back up over night, so we should be good until we can get enough rain to actually effect the water table in the area

Your drilled well probably is NOT an artesian well, though somehow the words "artesian well" have come to be associated with any drilled well. A true artesian well will spout water as though you hit an oil gusher. You won't need a pump with an artesian well, in fact you might need to have some sort of pressure reducer in it to cut the pressure back.

If you have water concerns obviously you're doing the right thing. We had our first dug well for exactly 1 flush, then it ran dry. The "gent" who sold us the property told us that "we wouldn't be able to use water like we were in the city". Yup, no water is exactly that alright. Then we made the old railroad dug well useable and that lasted for quite a few years. We entered winter with a low water table and by March that was dry. During the winter, since the ground is frozen in Maine then, as far as the water table is concerned it might as well be the Sahara above since nothing gets through the frost. The solution was a drilled well. They went down 285' and in the last section of drill pipe on the truck they hit so much water the driller couldn't even guess what the delivery rate was. He just wrote on the paper that it was 15 gallons per minute, but it filled the shaft in seconds and he said it sounded like a train, he also said that we had enough water to supply the entire hill if we wanted to do that. I have no idea how much reserve is there, but we haven't had a problem since and the water is of excellent quality.

I feel for you with your water problems. It's the pits to not have it; folks who turn the tap and find it there all the time just can't imagine. Do you get autumn rains? I'm asking when the next reliable recharge of the water table is expected. I'm hoping it's soon; you need water, everyone does, and hauling water is the pits.

I'm definitely not wasteful of water, but I (we) don't need to conserve at all either.

What would happen if you were to put down a well point? Is that even a possibility? For us it wouldn't be because of the rocks, but a few miles away if one drives a point down 12' they'd have all the water they could possibly pump. It's not difficult to drive a point.

Your drilled well probably is NOT an artesian well, though somehow the words "artesian well" have come to be associated with any drilled well. A true  artesian well will spout water as though you hit an oil gusher. You won't need a pump with an artesian well, in fact you might need to have some sort of pressure reducer in it to cut the pressure back.

If you have water concerns obviously you're doing the right thing. We had our first dug well for exactly 1 flush, then it ran dry. The "gent" who sold us the property told us that "we wouldn't be able to use water like we were in the city". Yup, no water is exactly that alright. Then we made the old railroad dug well useable and that lasted for quite a few years. We entered winter with a low water table and by March that was dry. During the winter, since the ground is frozen in Maine then, as far as the water table is concerned it might as well be the Sahara above since nothing gets through the frost. The solution was a drilled well. They went down 285' and in the last section of drill pipe on the truck they hit so much water the driller couldn't even guess what the delivery rate was. He just wrote on the paper that it was 15 gallons per minute, but it filled the shaft in seconds and he said it sounded like a train, he also said that we had enough water to supply the entire hill if we wanted to do that.  I have no idea how much reserve is there, but we haven't had a problem since and the water is of excellent quality.

I feel for you with your water problems. It's the pits to not have it; folks who turn the tap and find it there all the time just can't imagine. Do you get autumn rains? I'm asking when the next reliable recharge of the water table is expected. I'm hoping it's soon; you need water, everyone does, and hauling water is the pits.

I'm definitely not wasteful of water, but I (we) don't need to conserve at all either.

What would happen if you were to put down a well point? Is that even a possibility? For us it wouldn't be because of the rocks, but a few miles away if one drives a point down 12' they'd have all the water they could possibly pump. It's not difficult to drive a point.

Oh, my mistake, that is what it has always been called even before we took ownership of the camp... in that case it's a drilled well and feed 5 cottages and 9 trailers and has never once run dry : Of course, when the power is out we don't have running water and some people come and ask us why they can't flush their total at that time...  ya...   

Anyway!

285 feet?  O_O  Eesh, that has to the deepest well I have heard about, but that's great that you have found such a great source of water!

Aye, as I said above, some of our guests come and ask why they have no water when the power is out, they assume something is wrong with the pump and want us to fix it... of course these are the same people who jam their fridge so full that it can't get anything cold since the vents are blocked and then complain that their fridge isn't working, so...   

Not sure exactly what a well point is, but if it's what I think it is, then, well, I'm not sure.  Were I am I am on the Canadian Shield so there is a huge amount of bedrock in this area, so I'd imagine we'd hit bedrock at some point.  But I'd have no idea how far down we'd have to go to hit it and if there'd be a water source before it.  Might be something to look into though, thanks

We have granite "ledge" about 35' down, so our driller drilled down approx. 250' to get to a crack in the granite that allowed for "seepage". Those cracks are quite common in Maine since we had a few miles of ice above the state 10,000 years ago and that ice cracked the granite in good shape. But one never knows how far a well must be before one is hit. It's a roll of the dice. In the western US, in the Ogallala aquifer it's not unusual for wells to be thousands of feet deep.

If the glaciers deposited boulders when they retreated a well point is probably not doable for you. Let me see if I can find a link for well points...

I found a few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-9g6iZGk0Y

http://www.extension.umn.edu/environment...wellpoint/

But if you're on granite the best solution is probably a drilled well if you want more water, same as we needed. I can tell you what I paid per foot, but it would do you no good. That was 20 years ago and in another country. The price will be 2 tiered; the price until they hit granite, because that section must have steel casing. Then the price per foot without casing. We needed no permit, but you might. I'm betting that the glaciers did to your granite exactly what they did to Maine granite, but your local university geologist would know definitely. Might not know your specific situation, but just in general.