Who doesn’t love taking a dip!? Maybe you like to take a refreshing swim in the backyard or or perhaps a nice relaxing bath before bed. Ever wonder which uses more water a year? This is my totally unscientific battle of Bath VS Pool! In this battle we’ll figure out on average which of these uses the most amount of water a year here in the desert.

After poking around the internet very unscientifically I found that most sites say the average size bath is 40 – 60 gallons (1/2 filled) and that the average sized residential swimming pool holds around 20,000 gallons.

Lets assume the pool is already filled and not count the 20,000 gallons it took to fill it the first time. Being that it’s so hot and dry here a pool loses almost it’s entire volume of water a year to evaporation. Not looking good for Pool because that’s 20,000 gallons of water a year so far.

The battle isn’t over yet though because bath likes to slow down and unwind every night which means bath is using 50 gallons of water a night times 365 days a year equals a whopping 18250 gallons! Uh oh, all of a sudden it’s a tight contest.

I don’t know, do we have a winer here? Bath wins by a slight 1,750 gallons, but since this isn’t very precise.

Winner: Bath

Considering we should all bathe and having a pool is a luxury it was a unfair contest to start. I was curious how many gallons of water each might take a year, so I found out and thought I’d share. I’d probably say not having a pool would be best and instead head down to the local community or public pool. If you do have one installing a pool cover significantly reduces the amount of water that evaporates especially in the summer. You also don’t need to use as many chemicals if all your water isn’t evaporating.

As far as baths you can take fewer of them or substitute in a shower with a low flow shower head.

Here’s some water saving tips from the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

No other college or university offers its incoming class of students an experience as memorable and exciting as Prescott College’s Wilderness Orientation. In small groups consisting of ten students and two advanced student leaders or alumni, Resident Degree Program students travel on an extended backpacking trip through beautiful and remote areas of Arizona.

http://www.prescott.edu/highlights/orientation.html

I’d never heard of anything like this before until this summer when I found out my cousin was one of the advanced leaders. It really sounds like an amazing experience and would love to do some backpacking someday. What better way to start college then out in the wilderness learning about nature and I’m sure much more. According to Prescott College’s website 90% of incoming freshman participate in this program.

Prescott College

A couple weekends ago on my wife and I were on our way in to Phoenix when our car overheats forcing us to pull over. I look under the hood, nothing obvious is wrong, no leaking coolant, and the level is fine. I figure the water pump or something must be dead and call for a tow truck. Turns out the tow truck won’t be able to make it for over an hour and half. Grr!

I’ve driven this particular strip of I-10 hundreds of times before, but while sitting there waiting we saw many things you usually don’t see while speeding down the highway. Not far out at all and  just past the boundry where the desert meets the highway we saw 4 or 5 jackrabbits hopping around minding their own business. We also saw many hawks flying around probably on the hunt. Turns out the breakdown was a nice break from the hustle and bussel of life. It was nice to stop and see what going on around us. Sometimes things are not always as they seem.

Turns out the main cooling fan went out and no damage was done to the engine. Not too bad! So on our way to pick up the car from the shop I got rear ended…

 Have a good weekend!