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I love lavender, in sachets and candles, but the real thing with lavender flowers or essential oils, not the chemical mixtures.

I like to keep my onboard 40 gallon freshwater tank topped off when I am traveling, keep two 1 gallon jugs tucked away for just in case, and carry a 2 1/2 gallon jug I can refill for the dogs water.
 
I am not being judgmental but to me traveling with only 3 gallons of water is unthinkable. unless I am walking distance to a city. highdesertranger
 
Yer so sensitive ... for a hard rock miner. Only one person mentioned 3, and they weren't even traveling. Everyone else was pretty much at 10 or more. Especially as most people can't take their rigs much off the highway, in any case. After a week, I am tired of my cooking, and need a hamburger and frys. But I'm thinking the idea of dehydrated water is something to look in to, not heard of it before.
 
Dehydrated water can be reconstituted with a solar still. Doesn't work great in the desert though.
 
You bring up a good point, Brian. Something to add to one's kit of survival skills. This guy is talking about a solar still in the "parched" outback, but it looks more of a possibility than around a place like Quartzsite.



Offhand, anyone around here do a DIY build using blue boys for grey and black water holding tanks?
 
Water.

When I nomaded regularly out of a pickup, Id keep 2 5 gal plastic cans and a couple smaller ones to transfer into for use. I still didnt often go out for extended times away from towns. Tip, the 2 liter plastic pop bottles worked great for winter use. You can bang them on the truck bumper to break up the ice and get enough water freed up to brush your teeth. Grey water was in a basin for dish washing and wash-ups, it was tossed/spread out wherever handy. Nobody ever thought much about it and Id never heard that was bad. A tank would dump more water at one time and place, but is grey water a problem or hazard? One cabin I lived in, the grey water pipe went out on the ground, the grass grew really well in that area.

Ive heard of people in desert areas using an evaporation basin to get rid of grey water, anybody here done that?

The black tank in my old Winnebago would take months (6?) to need to be dumped, but it only had the toilet and bath sink going into it, I avoided using that sink so it wouldnt fill the black tank up any faster than needed. The grey I just let go on the ground, I never was aware of any problems from it based on the years of living in the cabin with the grey going out on the ground. Before anyone has a cow, it was on my own land. I lived in the winny maybe 2 or 3 years off and on total time.
 
I’m not big on alternative meds but essential oils and some herbal teas work for me and I was floored at the vet when they used a calming oil for animals on my dog and it worked.

Lavender is a strong scent. I carry a bottle of the real stuff in my bag. Sometimes I wonder if my rubbing it on my hands in public is driving someone crazy. You either love it or hate it. I can understand how it would be unpleasant. I don’t like the smell of roses. Especially in perfume or oil form. And cut grass makes me gag, literally.
 
Hate the smell of heavy perfumes. I used to always hold my breath going into department stores where they always placed the perfume counter right inside the door. Don't go there anymore.

Love the smell of cut grass/hay but my sinuses don't much care for it but has gotten better with age. Sage now gives me fits in the desert.
 
The thank you plugin on the forum was causing it to crash a lot, thus it was removed.
 
B and C said:
Hate the smell of heavy perfumes.
Some of us are extremely sensitive to strong air-borne molecules, especially perfumes, cigarette smoke, certain pollens (especially in the evening right after dusk), the smell of cut grass. The last about kills my sinuses. YMMV.

Similarly, people's responses to different antihistamines varies. I've always found that the "non-drowsy" types (Claritin,Allegra,Zyrtec) do no good for me, so had to revert back to the ones been around for 50 years and more ... walmart Chlortabs, chlorpheniramine maleate (ha, spelled it right the first time!). YMMV.
 
Interesting because ever since I went to the Mojave at age 6 then in high school when my parents bought a little vacation house in Palm Springs I’ve always felt better in the desert. Everything heals. My joints feel better. Infections clean up. Turns out I’m highly allergic to mold and my doctor explained that most soil is wet so full of mold but the desert isn’t so I feel good.Also humidity exacerbates my autoimmune conditions (Palm Springs area has become humid) But other people say it’s too dry and their skin dries out and their sinuses dry out. Apparently different climates for different people when all my life I thought the desert had magical healing powers.
 
highdesertranger said:
I am not being judgmental but to me traveling with only 3 gallons of water is unthinkable. unless I am walking distance to a city. highdesertranger
I carry 10 to 15 gallons of water in 5 gallon containers, plus about 6 one gallon containers of drinking water, plus a case of water bottles and 6 quarts of lemonade. I have never even come close to running out of water, but I have run out of food before. 
~crofter
 
Water is space consuming. I've never been that far from civilization for a prolonged period of time, so three gallons is good for me. I may be in a remote place but there are still stores if I need them... and here, there's a beautiful creek every few miles so if I ran out and had no other resources I could get water from a creek and purify it.
 
"and here, there's a beautiful creek every few miles so if I ran out and had no other resources I could get water from a creek and purify it."

that's more my way of thinking.

highdesertranger
 
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