Using a swift river as an automatic dishwasher

Murrmurr

Murrmurr

SF VIP
Location
Sacramento, California
When all 3 of my kids were in elementary school, we lived up north in the lower Sierra Mountains - like, above the foothills, but not way up in the mountains. We were in walking distance of one of the small rivers that fed the big Feather River, and I was one of several in our town who used it as our automatic dishwasher.

First, we always rinsed our dishes immediately after use.

Every morning I loaded our breakfast and all our day-before dishes into a net bag...not neatly stacked, just kinda jumbled in there. Then I stopped at the river on my way to work to stick the bag in the river where the water was swift and the dishes were a good 6 inches or so below the surface. I'd pick up the bag on my way home, and the dishes were all sparkling clean.

I sometimes washed our clothes that way, too. No soap, and no beating your jeans on a rock or anything, you just leave it anchored down with rocks in swift, clean water for an hour or so and it comes out really clean. Smells really good, too.
 

Murrmurr said:
When all 3 of my kids were in elementary school, we lived up north in the lower Sierra Mountains - like, above the foothills, but not way up in the mountains. We were in walking distance of one of the small rivers that fed the big Feather River, and I was one of several in our town who used it as our automatic dishwasher.

First, we always rinsed our dishes immediately after use.

Every morning I loaded our breakfast and all our day-before dishes into a net bag...not neatly stacked, just kinda jumbled in there. Then I stopped at the river on my way to work to stick the bag in the river where the water was swift and the dishes were a good 6 inches or so below the surface. I'd pick up the bag on my way home, and the dishes were all sparkling clean.

I sometimes washed our clothes that way, too. No soap, and no beating your jeans on a rock or anything, you just leave it anchored down with rocks in swift, clean water for an hour or so and it comes out really clean. Smells really good, too.
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This sounds like an efficient, nature-friendly way to get a household chore accomplished, which I'm all for.

But were you not worried about contaminants in the river?

Or was the constantly moving, changing water a remedy or guard against that?

I know nothing about this sort of thing so I am genuinely curious. :)
 
Medusa said:
This sounds like an efficient, nature-friendly way to get a household chore accomplished, which I'm all for.

But were you not worried about contaminants in the river?

Or was the constantly moving, changing water a remedy or guard against that?

I know nothing about this sort of thing so I am genuinely curious. :)
Click to expand...
Swift moving water is virtually void of contaminants.

Once in a while I'd find a minnow in a pocket, though. 😜
 

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You're lucky there wasn't a monastery further up-stream. They used to build their toilets over a river!
 
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