So began our experience with water in Fairbanks. We became very aware of every single drop we used. It is one thing to pay your city water and sewer bill every three months and not pay much attention to it. But when you have to constantly keep an eye on the water level in your tank and pay 6 cents per gallon (now currently 9 cents per gallon) when it gets too low, you have a different perspective! As it turns out, our well produced a lot sometimes and very little at other times, so we never knew when we would need a delivery. Bill would go down every couple of days and check the level in the tank. In time, he was able to recognize the level at which an order for 1000 gallons of water should be called in for the next day. In the winter, we usually went a few months between deliveries; at other times of the year it was more like three weeks. One summer we went only nine days between deliveries. That was expensive!
We learned to take fast showers and to get wet, turn off the water, soap up, turn the water back on, rinse, and get out. This was not as bad as you might think when taking a shower in the morning. The bathroom was cold and standing there wet was not something I cared to spend lots of time doing! It became second nature to us to turn off the water when brushing teeth, or washing dishes, and to simply be mindful when we were using water for any purpose. It was a somewhat difficult transition for the Norwegian exchange student we had one year, who was used to 20-minute (literally) showers at home where there is water everywhere. She also had to learn to turn off the lights when she left the room, which annoyed her mother to no end when she returned home. Since they use water to produce their electricity, they pay virtually nothing for it, so they leave lights on all the time. Even she got used to it, though I am sure she was happy to get back to her long, steamy showers when she returned home!
