This did not work out too well. The bathtub drain became clogged and I had to hire a pair of plumbers. The plumbesr tried to sell me on replacing my entire drainage system with an inferior plastic pipe.
Two other pairs of plumbers had tried the same gambit in years gone by. One of the plumbers would get on the roof and run a video recorder on a cord down a sewer exhaust vent. The other would propose the high cost project on the basis of the tiny tendrils of root hairs hanging down through the ceramic sewer pipes.
As with the other two plumbering pairs, the third pair would not be dissuaded from the hard sell pitch, despite the fact that I asked, then demanded three times, sternly, that they stop. What an exasperating experience that was for me!
I ended up with a $75 snake job, which did the trick (despite dire warnings that it would not do so). They finally left.
I figure that sewer drains don’t function right unless I let tub water drain down them a few times a week. That is my guess. –Alice B. Clagett, 25 May 2025
Image: “Man Carrying Two Buckets,” by TriviaKing at English Wikipedia, 22 June 2008, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_carrying_two_buckets.JPG … CC BY-SA 3.0
Dear Ones,
Water prices are so high here in Los Angeles these days the wild surmise goes round that the LA Department of Water and Power has been purchased by the mob to grow marijuana in the sewage treatment facilities, and that we homeowners are footing the tab! What with the COVID lockdown, there are no bar tabs to be footed today. Wilder urban legends have gone the rounds, over the years. Who can say?
Until the truth be laid bare, water in LA is costing up to $600 a month for a person with a backyard lawn and a modest home in the ‘burbs. How are we to afford to water even a container vegetable garden when water prices are so high? Here is what I came up with; it is cost effective, offers a little daily exercise, and feels just right for sustainable living …
I thought if I could find a very good stopper for my bathtub, and tough, flat-bottom buckets such as are used to feed horses in horse stalls, then I could scoop up the water in the tub after a shower and use it to water the vegetable garden.
I needed a water-tight drain stopper for the bathtub, and that was hard to come by. I found that, because of the age of my house, the tub drain I needed was not a standard size sold in the local hardware stores. Online I found 3 sizes of drain stoppers, and none of them fit the bathtub drain.
Finally I found at Amazon … https://www.amazon.com … a multi size bathtub stopper (1-1/8 inch to 1-7/8 inch). It came in a two pack, and I found it offered a firm seal at the largest size graduation. If you cannot readily get a snug drain stopper for your bathtub, then the multi size drain stopper may work for you as well.
The next thing was to find durable buckets that would conform to the flat bottom of the tub. That was a little easier, as feed stores and Amazon sell ‘flat back’ plastic feed buckets with strong metal handles. I picked two buckets, each with two-gallon capacity, as very large buckets full of water would be too much for me to carry.
It turned out the buckets I picked were perfect for the job. One side was flat, so that the bucket would lie flat when the handle was attached to the wall of a horse stall. That flat side, laid against the bottom of the tub, allowed me to scoop up almost all the water in the tub.
I placed the partly full buckets on an old towel next to the tub just before taking the water outside, so that water would not drip through the house. This has proven a no muss, no fuss way to water my container garden using shower water.
In addition, I keep a regular bucket in my kitchen sink for dishwashing and daily use that water to keep up those outdoor plants that are not able to survive with the amount of landscape water allowed Los Angeles homeowners by the LA Department of Water and Power.
Hope these tips help green the gardens of LA!
In love, light and joy
This is Alice B. Clagett.
I Am of the Stars … and so are you!
Written and published on 24 July 2020; revised on 25 May 2025 and on 7 September 2025
Location: Los Angeles, California
Search Amazon .. https://www.amazon.com … for: Silicone Multi Size Bathtub Stopper (2 pack) … and … Little Giant Plastic Animal Feed Bucket (2 gallon)
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Attribution: By Alice B. Clagett.
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sustainable living, survival, water conservation, gardening, lockdown, lock down,
