Water Conservation Tip
It seems that the Seattle Drought of 2005 might be averted thanks to efficient water management and timely rains over the last month--so much so that the drought advisory for Seattle might be called off:

Seattle water forecasts show it would take a freakish bout of dry weather in the coming months to create problems for the city's system, which also serves much of eastern King County. A Tacoma official predicted that city will cancel its drought advisory by early July unless things take a major turn for the worse. A statewide drought declaration, issued by Gov. Christine Gregoire in March, will remain in effect. And Seattle is continuing to urge residents to conserve water, in keeping with its drought plan.

That's good news for my dozen tomato plants, but we're not out of the woods yet. And Eastern Washington is still extremely dry. And this might not necessarily be the last time in the near future we'll face these dry conditions here in the Pacific Northwest (or in other parts of the US West for that matter), so it's a good idea to start thinking of new water-saving practices that you can adopt to keep individual usage levels low. We bought two rain barrels for gardening at our homestead, the LemondDrop, last fall, but they're not going to make a huge dent in usage (unless you have a good system for storing the runoff water). An even better way to cut home water usage is switch out your old top-loading washing machine for a front-loader:

It's helpful that SPU (Seattle Public Utilities) and other water utilities tell you on your water bill exactly what your household's daily water consumption is, in gallons, this year and last year. Since we bought the front-loader, our three-person household has used, on average, at least 800 fewer gallons of water a month, over a six-month period. This should result in a savings of more than $75 a year on our water bill. Water savings will vary by household, but the reduction is nearly always at least 6,000 gallons a year. If you do a lot of hot-water loads, you can also save plenty on your energy bill, because you're heating less water. In addition to the water and energy savings, let me count the other ways our front-loader rocks: We use much less detergent; we can do more clothes in a load; the finished washload is drier; and it's easier on the clothes, so they last longer. The cost of a front-loader ranges from $550 to $1,400 — about $200 to $400 more than a top-loader with similar features. Ours was $600, and we received an additional $100 rebate through the utility-sponsored WashWise program (www.savingwater.org). On this Web site you can find out if you qualify for a rebate and links to other rebate programs.

Mrs. F and I have one and we love it.