Archive for July, 2019

Solar Shower

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

Woods Canyon Lake above Payson.

One thing I miss while boondocking in the summer is a nice warm shower any time I want. I don’t like to light my hot water tank every time I want to use a little hot water, and mostly I don’t like to burn propane to heat that water. Propane is one of the remaining luxury’s I can’t seem to give up in my quest to becoming completely independent of fossil fuel while I’m camped. My stove, fridge, and furnace all use propane, but the biggest use in the summer is my hot water heater. I could probably increase my solar capacity and eliminate the gas burning appliances by switching them to electric but for now I keep looking for practical ways to be a little more green.

For a few years I used a solar shower bag to heat water free with the sun. It worked ok but the bags didn’t seem to last very long and I had to put up and store the bag and tubing after each move. I wanted something more permanent that I could leave on the roof and connect up quickly. I was watching YouTube one day and saw how some people had used large plastic pipe on the roof of their vehicles to heat water in the sun for a shower. I decided to make one.

Black pipe really draws the heat from the sun.

Most of the projects were made with 4” pipe but I calculated that 3” would give me plenty of capacity for what I needed. They also used air pumps to pressurize the water for a forceful spray. I thought that gravity from the roof of my RV would be adequate.

My 10 foot pipe holds a little over 3.5 gallons. I pump the water up to the pipe from a fitting on my outside shower faucet. After a couple hours the water is hot enough for a nice long shower. Right now I run the hose down into my bathroom shower but I could run it outside if I was in a place without people around. It was working great with one exception- if I left the water in the pipe too long it would become scorching hot in the Arizona sun.

Mixing hose from my RV shower.

I solved the overheating problem yesterday by connecting a hose from my house shower to the solar shower with a mixing T. Now if the water gets too hot I can bleed in a little cold from my pump. I also installed a valve where I can catch the overheated water for dishes and washing out a few articles of clothes.

So far it seems to be working fine. It is definitely not for drinking as who knows what chemicals are in the pipe. If I leave water in the pipe for a couple days it takes on the smell of plastic. I have not installed anything permanent yet because I’m still experimenting with locations and setup, but I’m confident it will work.

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Forest Living

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

Willard Springs campground

Not long after Donna traveled back to her home in Mesa, I drove over to northern Arizona and settled in the Coconino National Forest west of Flagstaff. I knew a couple other people that camped there and it wasn’t long before we greeted each other and made plans to take some morning walks. There are quite a few places near Flagstaff that many boondockers spend their entire summer. It becomes an art to move to different places before attracting attention and not overstaying your welcome. The limit is 2 weeks in one place and we try not to push the good nature of forest rangers too much.

I had only been at my camp a few days when I received word that my older brother, Richard was having medical problems and was being transferred to the VA hospital in Phoenix. For reasons not completely known his lungs were not working right and contributing to major health problems. I decided to drive down to Phoenix and stay with Daryl and Donna and help out any way I could.

Richard became very ill and he gave all the family quite a scare. For 9 days he lay in an induced coma on life support as they pumped oxygen into his lungs and medicated him through tubes. Through a strong will and modern medicine he fought back and was eventually able to breath on his own.

His recovery has been miraculous. He continues to improve every day. It will take a lot of work and rehab but we are all positive that he will be able to do the things he did before. He may have to make some adjustments to his lifestyle but we all have to do that as we get older.

I’m leaving out a lot of detail in the story of my time with family in Phoenix but that’s ok. There were a lot of emotions that we all shared while Richard was so gravely ill, and even more as he pulled through.

Watermelon party.

Once things returned to somewhat normal in town I headed back up on the Mogolllon Rim to get out of the heat of the Valley. Temperatures at Daryl’s and Donna’s were climbing to 110+ degrees and my lifestyle consists on migrating in search of 70 to 80 degrees. At 7000’ feet in the forests near Flagstaff, I have been quite comfortable the last couple of weeks. The camping spots I found are very pretty, and I have met up with some of the same people I was with before. Life is good.

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