Waiting for the Rain - Challenges of living Off-Grid

That's me in our 5000 litre water tank ^^

I've never been in a water tank before and it was quite the unusual experience, to be honest!
Although being inside wasn't a big problem (it's big enough for me to stand upright comfortably), how to get in and out again needed some creative thinking and maybe (just maybe) caused a tiny little panic attack in me ^^

But I made it!
And I should probably tell you why I had to lower myself into a big water tank in the first place!

A while ago we noticed that the rain water that we collect in that tank and use for washing up, showering and watering the garden, got a bit of a mouldy smell.
First we though there maybe was something (dead) in the filter, on the roof or in the rain gutter. We cleaned everything but found nothing.

So we reached out to the owner of the house (we're house-sitting his property while he's working abroad) and he told us that we would regularly have to clean the water tank, because there wasn't a proper filter system in place yet.
One of those little things that he forgot to tell us before he left ^^

So we used up as much of the mouldy water as possible, washed all our clothes and bedding and pumped a lot of the water in another smaller tank we use as supply for the vegetable garden, while waiting for the weather forecast to predict a few days of rain, so we wouldn't be without tap water for too long.

The day came, forecast said 90% chance of rain in the evening, so we got started right away!

The cleaning went well, was easier than expected. The heaviest part was to get the little rest of the water out that still stood in the tank (maybe you can tell me why the drain is 10 cm above the bottom of the tank?), but we managed with a bucket that I filled and lifted up to the whole where my man took it to empty it out.

Now the water tank looks shiny and brand new again, ready to supply us with fresh clean rain water again! :)

The only thing is ... the rain never came ^^

The weather here in the mountains doesn't really care what the forecast says, and it obviously decided to stay hot and dry for a while longer XD

So we're kind of back to camping life, trying to use as little water as possible, washing ourselves by using a bottle filled with mouldy water from the garden container ^^

Fortunately we have our own well on the property where we get our drinking water from, so we can also use that for washing the dishes. It's just that we (my man, to be quite honest) have to carry it all the way from the bottom of the property to the house, so we try to be sparing with it.

Now we look at the sky every day hoping that this one little light grey cloud that appears would bring us the desired rain ^^

It's funny how the perception of certain things changes depending on your life situation.
Rain here means convenient tap water supply and that I don't have to water the garden, where a few years back in Northern Germany a rainy day made me kind of grumpy and caused a lot of inconvenience.

So now we patiently wait for the rain to come, let's hope the hot Bulgarian summer takes a little two days break soon ^^

Keep your fingers crossed for us! <3

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