By Dylan McDonough
For four days, Michigan survived a huge snowstorm with wind chills below zero degrees. The weathermen called it a Polar Vortex. Many houses lost power due to weather this winter, including my house. Our well does not work without electricity. We needed water to flush toilets, bath and more. We went to Ace Hardware to get some buckets for water. Our plan was to melt snow into free water. Outside we took some of their snow with a breast cancer awareness shovel that Dad had borrowed from a rack nearby. We wanted to melt the snow to get water. As we were doing this crazy act, an Amish couple came out of Ace and commented on what we were doing. Now some of you know that Amish people are not supposed to talk to un Amish people, but we must have been a funny sight that they had to say something. Well when we got back home and put the buckets near the fireplace, we did not get water in the bucket but in the air. It had evaporated! The Amish probably knew all along. So, how do you melt snow to get water instead of making a humidifier?
First, do it outside in the cold weather. Make a warm fire under a slanted table made out of rocks. Place the snow on top of the table and put a ring of tiny stones around the chunk of snow. This will keep the snow from sliding. Lastly, put a bucket at the edge of the table. The snow will melt off the table into the bucket without evaporating. Although I filter the snow, just because it’s white doesn’t mean it’s clean.
Sometimes having no power is fun for me, even if we have to learn the hard way.