Hot showers are important

When I own a land and a house, one of most important things in my book to have is a hot shower. 🚿 I like to be able to take a hot shower to get clean every day, to wash away the mud and the muck, the sweat and the smell of wood smoke and gasoline.πŸ”₯ Cold water is not effective to bathe, warm water is much more effective at cleaning.πŸ’§

Probably the single biggest thing I miss when camping is hot showers. I’ve tried the solar camp shower bags but they don’t hold that much water don’t get very warm and don’t really provide a suitable alternative for getting clean. The best I end up doing while camping in the summer is visiting lots of swimming pools and holes, showering in state parks. 🏊On autumn camping trips showers are less frequent than I prefer, usually limited to the rare nights I stay in developed campgrounds.πŸ‚ But so is the cost of travel.

Fortunately, there are many low amperage, highly efficient ways to have hot showers even in remote off-grid places. Instant on propane showers quickly heat water by burning propane. High-efficiency water pumps for off-grid cabins can be quite efficient, getting water to desirable pressures. 🚰 And neither is very energy or water intensive compared to modern suburbanite homes. But it would get me clean.

And honestly if I had a hot shower I would also want to have it in the kitchen for ease of washing pots and pans. Paper plates are fine – they’re cheap and they burn – but to cook you still need to have pots and pans, which having hot water makes cleaning them much easier. 🍳Sure you can heat water on a camp stove for washing dishes but having a pressurized faucet with hot water makes everything easier. To say nothing about hand washing. πŸ‘

South of Moorefield, WV

Scenic views outside of Moorefield, WV in the Sweedlin Valley between Shendoah Mountain and Sweedlin Mountain on the other side. The South Fork of the Potamac River runs through this valley.

October 16, 2018 5:14 pm Update

I don’t know about you, but I am sure happy that certificate of deposits are producing higher yields these days. πŸ’΅

While 2.5 APY on a FDIC-insured 1 year CD isn’t going to make one rich, it’s a lot better then in years past. And 1-year CDs are good because they only tie up your money for a year — and lack the short-term risk of index funds and other market investments. At 2.5 APY, if you park $50k for one year, you earn $1,265 in a year guaranteed by the federal government. πŸ€”

The yield curve is dropping, and it’s increasingly risky to have too much market exposure for paper you can’t sit on for a decade. πŸ“‰ Sure, you’ll still losing money on certificate of deposits from inflation, but it’s not as bad as only a few years ago. While I am continuing to practice cost-averaging through my normal weekly investments, I am not going to throw wads of extra money into the market.

Tower Windows