Desert Life Update: Shower Progress, Greywater Plans & Desert Heat Challenges**
The desert heat has been relentless lately, and it’s definitely slowed down our momentum — but progress is still happening here at Plateau Hame de Colquhoun!
We recently installed the **on-demand water heater** in the outdoor shower. It was a quicker project than expected, thanks to Brent gaining back his strength. What would’ve taken Anne and me a full day was done in just about an hour with Brent handling the drilling and planning.
That said, we hit a small snag — we’re still missing the proper parts to connect the water hoses to the IBC tote. We’ve got plenty of fittings, but of course, the threads don’t match. So now we’re waiting on our next trip into town to grab the right ones.
### Next Step: Fixing the Shower Drain
Our next focus is the shower **drain system**. What we had originally planned — and even have all the parts for — isn’t working quite the way we hoped. The drain cap currently sticks up about half an inch above the floor. Not only will that cause drainage issues, but it’s also a perfect toe-stubber in the making.
So, the new plan is to use a **larger hole saw** to widen the existing drain hole. We’ll take apart the pre-assembled drain, and (fingers crossed) get it installed flush with the floor. Building something from scratch — especially when it’s not based on traditional blueprints — comes with a fair amount of trial and error. But we’re figuring it out as we go, and we *will* prevail.
### Looking Ahead: Greywater & Future Plans
Once the water is flowing and the on-demand heater is fully functional, we’ll move on to the **greywater system**. The plan is for the shower water to drain into a buried IBC tote, where we’ll **reuse it for plants** around the camp.
Eventually, I’d love to create a more advanced setup — routing the greywater through a **worm bed**, into a **hydro garden**, and finally into a **recycled water container** for later use. But we’re not quite ready for that yet. A system like that needs sun protection to keep the worms alive, and we’ve got other priorities first.
### What’s Next on the Build List:
* Construct **walls around the shower** to create a private dressing area
* Use **pallets and garden posts** to build the dressing area structure
* Create space nearby for a **washing machine hookup**
* Finish building out our **solar system** — we *hopefully* have everything we need for it, we just need a stretch of good weather, good health, and available time to get it done
Out here, building off-grid isn’t always easy — but it’s rewarding. The process may be slower than we’d like (especially under this sun), but each step gets us closer to a self-sustaining desert homestead.
Thanks for following along — more updates coming soon!
http://www.plateauhamedecolquhoun.com
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Ka-Hoon Campground and Event Center 