Sunday, May 17, 2009

Beating the heat and reusing water

In characteristic Southern California fashion, it is already dang hot! The boys and I are outside every morning before the heat and glare of the sun becomes too unbearable... then again in the late afternoon for a bit of water fun. Since Los Angeles is in the middle of one of the worst water shortages in almost 20 years, everyone is doing their part to cut back. You may already remember my keeping a bucket in the shower tip... the swimming pool water gets the same treatment.


Once or twice a week, we fill the kiddie pool about 1/3 of the way up... just enough to keep cool. The boys splish splash while I crochet and photograph the everyday... and when they are absolutely done, they shake off to dry while I break out the watering cans and buckets.

I (sometimes we) make about 20 trips back-and-forth from the pool to water the veggie garden...
from the pool to water my front yard gardenia, sweet pea and azalea bushes...
from the pool to water the orange tree...

Once the heat really hits, the green lawn in the background of these photos will get pretty crunchy but that's just how it goes living here.