Deck Shower

Yesterday I tried out the "cottage gift" that Theo bought for me. A battery powered shower! Theo and the kids can scrub down in the lake – I don’t get in the water as easily as jumping off the dock - so I get to have a shower.

The grey seat you see in the photo is my travel commode. It packs up into a Samsonite suitcase with wheels - pretty convenient, but darn heavy. It is not as sturdy as the commode I use at home, but it works. Well, most of the time (if you set the legs at the correct height - right Mom?) The first time I used it at the cottage I tipped forward and landed on the floor. Theo was down in the kitchen cabin at the bottom of the hill so I sent him a text “I need your help. I’m on the floor. Don’t panic.”  I didn’t hurt myself, but I learned a lesson about balance on uneven cottage floors…

We wanted to find the best spot out of the wind and in the sun. The photo shows what they call the “sky deck” and with the red chairs you can see it for miles across the bay. I thought that tucked away in the corner was good, and it was close to our cabin at the top of the hill where I could be rolled back to get dried and dressed in bed. So Theo brought me all the equipment up to the top – bucket, battery and hoses. Then he carried up a large pot of hot water and went down to the lake to get a bucket of cold. He mixed what he said was a good temperature “showers don’t need to be hot, right?” He connected the leads for the pump to the battery and voila – I have more water pressure coming out of this shower head then I do at home!

It was lovely, until, as I am washing my hair along comes an old guy in a boat, just cruisin’.  It’s one of those situations – I know that if I can see him, he can see me and Theo is doing a terrible job being a curtain. So there I am, in the nude, on my commode having a shower. So much for being in a quiet corner of the bay! It didn’t deter me though; it felt wonderful to get clean.

I learned something else from this experience – it is possible to shower using only one bucket and one pot full of hot water. Talk about conservation!