Blurbal Perspective

Photo Credit: healthfreedoms.org One would think that harvesting rainwater wouldn't be an illegal action. After all, it falls from the sky and it doesn't get used. It's a free for all. We should be using it! Officials have a "very good" reason for banning rainwater use : "It belongs to someone else." Officials believe that people steal rainwater from streams and rivers, and harvest it that way (for the most part, that is NOT TRUE). Several western states (Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon, to name a few)  have outlawed harvesting rainwater as a water source. In fact, if you are caught harvesting rainwater, as one gentleman found out, you are fined and sentenced to jail. Gary Harrington, a rainwater harvester from Oregon, was convicted of harvesting rainwater and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He willingly served his time as a protest of the ban on rainwater harvesting. A study was done in 2014, and it showed that harvesting rainwater wou...

Tiny home living is a movement that I have been fascinated with for a while now. It's been only recently where I have decided that I want to live in a tiny home, when I'm able to (health issues and finances are stalling these plans). Up until last week, I thought that the only tiny homes that existed were on wheels. WRONG! I watched a documentary and it showed a woman looking for a tiny home. She came across a "Yurt." It was this large, circular building with a white covering. I had never seen anything like it in my life, but I was amazed by how much space there was. In this specific yurt, there was a kitchen to the back, a sofa in the middle of the room, a fire place, and along the walls were little pod rooms. The pod rooms consisted of bedrooms, storage rooms, and bathrooms. The yurt did not have any electricity or running water. The lady wasn't crazy about the small pod rooms, but she bought the yurt anyway. She made some adjustments, however. She created...

Many individuals in this country use city water or well water as their water source. For those who are looking to go more green, and save green , you can choose to harvest rainwater as your water source. Those who choose to harvest rainwater to use for ingesting and cleaning have their reasons. The consensus harvest rainwater for environmental reasons. When one uses a stream or lake as a water source, you are tapping into the home of many species of wildlife. It would be like uninvited guests breaking into your home and stealing everything that makes it a home. It's like that for wildlife. Those who harvest rainwater know this, and want to preserve the habitat for the species of animals that live in that area. You may be thinking: "Not much rain falls from the sky. How can I use rainwater as a water source for my family of six?" Let's talk numbers, shall we? According to the USGS, one inch of rain falling over one acre of land is equivalent to over 27,000 g...

A few days ago, I announced my plans for a new series of posts about Tiny Home Living. Today, I'm going to talk about composting toilets. We have all heard about compost piles in which people discard food and other stuff. With composting toilets, you can put your waste to good use in your garden. I know what you all are thinking "Eww gross." Stay with me on this. Let me explain more about composting toilets. A composting toilet is an indoor toilet that processes human waste into usable soil. It requires no water usage whatsoever. If you're wondering about the odor, there is little to no odor in using a composting toilet. After one uses the toilet, human feces is mixed with either coconut coir, peat moss, or sawdust, in order to remove the odor and begin processing. Many individuals may use a waterless urinal in order to keep urine and feces separate (this isn't mandatory, this is up to you as a composting toilet user); excess urine in the composting chamb...