Don’t work against gravity

My neighbor has to pump his sewage uphill, away from the lake. Unlike my house, his sits right on the water, but I’d rather walk to the lake than pump sewage uphill. He’s not alone. Most of the places near the water have to do the same thing.

When they get a power outage, not uncommon out here in the sticks, they can’t flush toilets, take showers, or wash dishes. Some have big generators to keep everything running. That works, at least until the gasoline runs out. However, it’s using another complicated system to keep a bad design going. Then again, that pretty much sums up most of our industrial society.

It’s hard to beat the simplicity of a system that relies on nothing more than gravity. So far, the gravity has never failed. Sh*t runs downhill.

Ideally water would come from a source higher than the house. My folks once owned a summer place that got its water from further up the hill. It was great, as no power was needed to keep the plumbing going.

Alas, I have to pump my water uphill. You do have to get the water from where it’s at, not where you’d like it to be. My well does have an overflow pipe. To get water, all I have to do is catch it in a bucket. Then my legs do the work against gravity as I bring it up the hill. At least water pumps are more efficient than septic waste pumps. Those pumps have their work cut out for them, pushing nasties uphill.

-Sixbears