Bucket Life

Plumbing wars.

Back again.

Living out of a bucket.

But hey, the good news is I have a bucket and access to water to fill it!

I am a lousy plumber, but I come up with great ideas. Sort of. Kind of.

Living on an efficient budget teaches all sorts of humility.

Who would have thought that all those years I spent living in far flung islands would teach me how to live in modern day America out of a bucket?

Life is goof.

My 5 gallon bucket broke ages ago. Too much sunshine.

However, awhile back I bought a one gallon bucket at Dollar Tree for $1. It has been a life saver. One gallon is only 8 pounds instead of 40 pounds which is what a 5 gallon bucket of water weighs.

So I trot back and forth to the water spigot in the campground filling up my one gallon bucket.

The public restrooms here have been repeatedly vandalized at night. Not sure what kind of psychopath is living in the campground that does that. Scary stuff.

But with my trusty bucket of water, I can use it to flush my toilet. Wheee!  I can use it to haul water to fill up the Berkey water purifier, which I use for drinking water. A Berkey requires no electricity or water pressure to purify water, so at least I can make and use drinking and cooking water. Just toss my bucket in the top of the Berkey then wait for it to trickle through the super long lasting filters, and out the bottom, eventually comes pure water that is safe for drinking. Berkey is so powerful, one can toss in river, rain or lake water. Anything except salt water, that is different science to convert to drinking water.

I carry all the dishes outside to the water spigot and wash them there in cold water. Somehow I seem to spill as much water on my shoes and clothes as I use to wash the dishes.

Ain't life grand.

JB Water Weld is MAGIC, it can fix plumbing or oil pans. It withstands heat.

It finally after much trail and error with other products, FIXED my leaking hot water tank. 

One of the many water problems included a split in my 6 gallon hot water heater in the motorhome. I thought it was just a plumbing leak and actually called an RV repairman because I couldn't figure out how to remove the offending leaking part.

Well that guy doesn't return calls or doesn't do plumbing or all of the above. Probably just as well, When I showed the mess to my visiting friend, he discovered it was the tank leaking and not the plumbing.

YIKES!

My water tank is stored in an area with a ton of RV electrical wiring. Replacing it would be very costly both for the tank itself (have to buy the entire unit) plus the installation was way beyond my capabilities for sure. Being that RV repairman charge 80-120 per hour, I could see where this could become a ridiculously expensive repair if they took 10-20 hours to reroute and remove all the wiring and plumbing long enough to remove the tank, replace and hook the entire mess back up again.

Little was I to know this was only the tip of the iceberg of my water problems.

Meanwhile the city water connection on the outside of my RV broke off. Only 22 years old and it chose now to break. It has been leaking. I searched high and low for a replacement part. They don't make that style anymore.

I bought the sure thing, according to the salesman at Mobile Home Depot. He told me if it was the wrong part I could bring it back and gave me a list of all their store locations. Later, it was discovered it was the wrong part. Managed to return that at the 11th hour on the last day for return at a different Mobile Home Depot. That manager at that store didn't want to take the part for return, wanted me to drive 140 miles to the Mobile Home Depot in another town where I bought it.

Good grief.

Finally, after tons of smiles and patience and gentle persuasion, he refunded the money and took the wrong part back again. He didn't have a correct part to work for me.

Next I found a part that might work from Amazon. A few days later, it arrived damaged!

I returned it to Amazon for a replacement, but they refunded my money $12.99 because the part had somehow magically increased in cost to $21.99 so they couldn't do an exchange.

What?

Called up Amazon and explained the problem. Through a miracle they refunded the $9 difference so I could buy the replacement part at the new higher price. Something about different vendors being able to sell on Amazon. I still wonder how a part went from 12.99 to 21.99 in less than a week.

Inflation running rampant.

The new part arrived undamaged but it is vastly different from the old part, which they don't even make anymore. The old part was hefty and sturdy, lasted 22 years. The new part is flimsy and looks like I might be darn lucky to get 5 years out of it.

The RV industry is maddening at times! The new part is cheaply made in comparison to the old original part. Very frustrating. VERY.

Installing it is going to take some serious modifications to get it in.

Lawdy mercy!

And ya wonder why my hair is turning gray again.

Meanwhile patched up the hot water tank with quicksetting whatchamacallit, it will come to me, but it didn't work.

Grrrrrrrr...

Think like a boater. Think like life on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Ah ha!

Got it!

Get JB underwater weld and slap that on the leaking hot water tank. Amazon shipped out the underwater weld and amazingly it was half the cost of what the hardware store 7 miles away wanted when I called them to inquire. Ding ding, maybe I am gaining ground here?

Wait a few more days for the delivery.

This is a picture the  gray JB Water Weld that finally repaired my hot water tank. 
Um... I think, I hope, I pray, I wish so!

There is more to this story... a lot more!

But...

Gotta run, I have a friend here helping me with the water woes, maybe we can cobble this mess together and get me living like royalty again.

With running water.

Wheeeee!