Utilities

Utilities

In one of my previous entries I mentioned my pre-existing home came complete with electrical utilities and hooked up to the town's water and sewer system. This afforded me the convenience of making instant use of my shelter without worrying about finding a water source, digging a well, putting in a septic tank and drain field or worrying about power to pump water. All of this was also a lot less expensive than renting the equipment or hiring someone to do these things. While I got what I needed in a shelter and homestead lands it was still less than self-sufficient and that is now a problem.

I began using the existing utilities immediately for lighting, communication and power tools. Water and sewer has also been in constant use. At least the house came with a fireplace and wood burning stove, so I have never used any utilities for heating. The obvious problem with this is that such services can and have been cut when needed most, like in a blizzard and during ice storms. That's not really so bad as I do have backup in the form of a generator, propane cook stove and light, candles and batteries. Used as backups, these emergency items have served me very well through short terms such as a week to a week and a half while the power has been out. Once plugged into utilities, however, you'll find that those convenient power and water sources will cost you dearly as utility bills will increase yearly.

The water and sewer district has been the worst of the utilities to hook up to. In all fairness to the district, the system is old having been built in the 1920's and no maps or locations of the pipe system was left to the present generation. However, in recent times there has been a hodgepodge of screw-ups at the district ranging from deals with the feds to bring in money with strings attached to outright embezzlement by at least one previous board member. The additives to the water make the end product unusable by anyone who cares about their health without filtering. Making a bad situation worse is that the cost for water and sewage has climbed from $45.00 per month in the early 1990's to $90.00 per month today and we can expect it go up again in the near future.

The good news and bad news about our water system is that they are an unregulated, private company. The bad news is that this means there is no oversight as to what the company does. The good news is that there is no zoning or other regulation that requires you to remain hooked up to the system. So, this is one system that I am definitely going to unhook from. The complications to this is that you can not be hooked up to the sewer system without being hooked up to the water. Fortunately, I have a plan for this, which I'll get into later.
I will keep my electrical utilities only as long as I remain hooked up to the water and sewer district. After that, the electricity will go, too. Once the water and sewer has been replaced with a better, self-sufficient system, most of the work to become self-sufficient will be done. The rest of the job will be downhill from there.

I will be posting my plans to unhook from these detrimental systems soon and will also post progress. Stay tuned. You will definitely be learning something here. Check out my store at http://northwoodstraders.ecrater.com/ as well. More products and a re-routed store product design is coming this winter.