Wild fires, drought and washing our ass in the sink

If you’ve been watching anything in the news you know Western North Carolina is suffering greatly trying to fight wildfires. 

We happen to live right in the area, only on a mountain peak currently not covered in flames. 

We can see the smoke, smell the stench of burnt forest and feel the sadness of mother nature and her creatures great and small mourning the losses. 

With all this happening we are now out of water. Not just drought and mass devastation but dry in a personal well sorta way. 

Not only are we unable to put out a fire we can’t flush toilets. 

The fires have been going on weeks. I felt safe and grateful to be on the outer bands of where fire was currently burning in drought ridden forest. Then came the slow trickle of water which eventually became no water at all over the span of 24 hours. 

We called the neighbor and asked if he had water.

 He said no. 

Explains why he high tailed it out of here that morning. Like most of the home owners up here he has a second house (with running water!) elsewhere. Unfortunately for my little family we are normal people who manage to pay our bills for one house, barely. 

So here we are, one quote down and one to go to see how much it might cost to have running water again. I don’t know what’s scarier, no water or the estimate to have it back again. 

In the meantime we are using microwaved water in camp showers for bathing and flushing with purchased water in gallon milk shaped containers. 

Dishes are disposable or if necessary washed quickly and with as little water as possible. Clothing will be carted to town to wash and my love of bubble baths is put on ice.

 If we had ice. 

You don’t know how much water you need until it doesn’t simply come out of the faucet when you turn a handle. 

My biggest fear isn’t really how to shave my legs or deep condition my hair. I’m put out but will survive split ends and having to make several trips a week to buy bottled water. 

I have to wonder though what happens if we actually have a fire, here, on our mountain. What if it’s a small one but I can’t put it out before it engulfs a mountain top circle of homes? 

I make jokes about washing under a primitive bladder of water and using a basin to wash dishes … but what happens if the worst case scenario is an actual thing. 

I’m terrified.