Solar Hot Water

It has been hotter than blazes here this summer! . . . . . high heat and heavy drought. It is, by far, the worst drought I have seen in my lifetime. I have been so busy with trying to keep up watering my veggie garden and keeping my farm critters comfortable, that I haven't even gotten to go camping once this summer. That is rare for me. I have gotten to go on a couple of picnics, though, and that was really nice and wonderfully enjoyable.

The intense heat of this summer seemed like it would last forever. Then we had a BIG break and we thought it was over, but, to our dismay, the heat came back, once again, with a vengeance. Nearly every day last week was well over 100°.F. One day, as I went to fill my goats' tubs of water and had to wait for the hot water to clear out of the hose, it reminded me of another interesting camping story of days past. . . . .

When I was little, that favorite campground I loved so much didn't have all the many strict rules that campgrounds have today. One rule it did not, at that time, have, was a set number of people camping in the park. There was no limit as to how many people could camp there, nor to how many people could hook up to an electric outlet or a water faucet. Even though most of us didn't have a problem camping without electricity, running water at our camp was very nice to have. So, yep, the closest, local discount store sold LOTS of y-connectors. The campground was packed with people (not bad because we all grew to know each other and became friends) and a network of hoses, branching out all over the lower end of the park with y-connectors, was a common sight. Unless you were there, you could not possibly comprehend the extent of the networking of hoses.

The area was heavy with flint rock, so the water in the hoses heated up quickly throughout the day. Most people camped in tents then (yes, the good kind of camping), and even with quite a few in trailers, the trailers weren't nearly so modern as today. Most hot water tanks were small and ran only on propane, which were also small tanks. Tent campers had to heat their water over a wood fire or camp stove..... either that or send their kids up to the bath house to the outside utility sink to fill up containers with hot water. So hot water was highly valued.

As the day began to wind down, the race amongst the campers was on! Pots and pans began to ding and rattle as all the women rushed to be the first ones finished with dinner. Why? Because there was hot water in all those hoses! Most people used the white drinking hoses, so the water was good for cooking with. Starting with already hot water saved on propane when cooking. And the first few to finish dinner got solar heated water to do their dishes with and didn't have to wait for water to heat or waste precious propane as the little hot water tanks refilled. Many never even turned on their hot water tanks in anticipation of always being the first ones done with dinner. If you were an outsider looking in, I am sure it was an hilarious sight, but it worked out very well, and inexpensively for those that were fast, leaving time to go back out on the lake for a bit after dinner settled, or play a game of horse shoes, croquet, etc. No one ever really got mad if someone beat them to the hot water for dishes. You only had yourself to blame for being too slow. But heaven help the ones that, on occasion, decided to use it to take a shower in their trailer instead of walking all the way up to the bath house!!!