The two mug race

The Eco-kettle

designed to allow you to boil only as much water as you need.

Cleverly done through the system of filling the kettle but then - pressing the button to indicate how many cups (at 200ml) you want to heat. 

A great idea - but - we use the AGA to heat our water. 

So, I decided to time how long each would take for the water to boil.

Switch on and time.

For 2 mugs.  1.3 minutes for 400ml of water to boil in the eco-kettle and 1.8 minutes for the same amount of water in the AGA kettle.

So, the Eco-kettle will save power.  However, I have no plans to change our system of boiling water but I will measure more accurately the amount of water to put in the kettle.

Lynn

Day 3

http://youtu.be/MeJ4B5nRs9k

Airy water

Have installed the shower 'egg timer' which prompts you to limit your shower to 4 mins which I have to admit is a bit of a struggle. Some times I go in the shower for 5 minutes peace and 4minutes is just not the same. 

In a bid to help more on the water saving front, we played around with in insert for the shower hose and also a new shower head. tried comparing them all in different combinations and basically each device on its own adds 0.5 secs to the time it takes to run a litre of water (9.6 secs with no water saving device and 10.3 with one and 10.7 with both). Doesn't sound a lot but my basic maths tells me that its a 10% reduction and a 4 min shower should use 2.5 litres less water. When there are six of you that is quite a reduction ( although the teenagers are true to form and don't actually shower that often, good for my water reduction challenge but not for my nose).

I have to say though that the shower head works by sucking in air and somehow pushing it through the flow of water. This means you don't notice any reduction in power but it is really noisy so we will have to see if it is tolerable for the early morning showers.

Julie

Day 2 clips: water, wildlife and a family weekend

See what you could encounter out and about in Yorkshire Water areas in just 90 seconds: http://youtu.be/MLi9EUJo5N8

Dan

Video of our first day adventuring with Yorkshire Water

Check out this 90 second clip of the best bits of day 1.  Great footage of the environments we encountered.

http://youtu.be/TT1MpoC1C3o

You can also see what we thought were the best bits of the last weekend discovering more about how Yorkshire Water are helping look after our coastline at http://youtu.be/def_7HUR0ak

Dan

Shower away

Good to know my normal length of shower was within the measure of the timer.

 But

Watering the growing vegetables with water fit for drinking, made me think of ways to store the water from the gutters below the roof after rainfall, keep water from the dishwasher and washing machine and use it for plant watering.  

Still thinking.  

However, I now know its useful to use the hosepipe gun when I need less water for the plants.

Lynn

Plus, Sam says you can also wash your cans, bottles and containers for recycling in the stored rainwater instead of using water from the tap.

Sam

The whole Adventure Experience

When you turn your tap on at home or in the workplace it is hard to realise the amount of work and development that has taken place for that water to arrive clean and fresh and in a condition that we, the consumer, are all comfortable with. 

What this Yorkshire Water adventure has done for me, and all the family, has opened our eyes to appreciate the considerable energy, foresight, development and construction work being put into, not only what comes out of the tap, but also what happens to the water when it leaves us. 

This w/end we have seen the water effluence plant at Esholt and the huge new development in Scarborough to hold waste products from flood waters entering the sea before it is treated to be clean enough not to spoil our beaches. 

YW will ensure that the Environment Agency sea water tests at Scarborough and the surrounding beaches receives an excellent result. Well done to YW and a big thank you from all our family for such an enlightening adventure.                      

Sam

Shooting

I was impressed from the start by the way the film and photo crew got into position to take their shots.

and hear the words.

Their view depended on what they wanted to convey

such as a water creature put in glass to give a close up - not shown is PIp picking this creature up when it dropped to the ground.

I

The commitment of the crew was clear when these shots were taken. 

Please note it was us that had gone with clothes to go into the sea.

A great film photo crew. Looking forward to seeing the shots they took.

We know some of the earlier shots taken are on posters in the Yorkshire Water stand at the Great Yorkshire Show this week in Harrogate. 

Lynn

Heading seawards

A full on final day of adventure was looking at the final stages of waste water control before encountering the real deal and hitting the waves in the afternoon.  Lyndsey and Clare at Yorkshire Water help look after the Yorkshire coastine from the environmental effects of climatic change and preventing direct and overflow sewage discharge.

Scarborough waste system is undergoing a significant investment of £50 million, nearly half of a total coastline upgrade programme to better manage the increasing levels of sewage we are pushing their way and to reduce the chances of overflow from heavy rainfall events and storms.  Lyndsey described a new and revolutionary modelling process that Yorkshire Water are using to predict the waste and sewage flows to ensure that the investments they make are cost efficient and long lasting.

The developments include several underground holding tanks squeezed between Marina Drive on the sea edge and the cliffs. This one was 32m deep - it looked a long way down there!

Tall cranes managed to keep clear of the fulmer populated sea cliffs.

From here, the waste is pumped in big pipes under the ground along the coast to a treatment works like that we saw yesterday at Esholt, albeit somewhat smaller.  This was built on crown estate, and was constructed to look like an original farm to fit into the beautiful coastline using a world first - a UV screening process to give the seaward discharge a final 'polish' before it went out to sea.  Certainly the walkers on the coast hugging Cleveland way wouldn't have recognised it as a sewage works.

The beautiful Yorkshire coast, unaffected now the Yorkshire Waters works are installed to deal with our  waste.

In a unique partnership to build a better environment for the Yorkshire coastline, Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency and the local councils are working together to improve the coastline and sea water quality, aiming to achieve the recently updated and highly rated blue flag quality award for both beaches in Scarborough (currently the south beach is rated as excellent whilst the north beach is defined as sufficient).

After a classic Scarborough fish and chip dinner, we headed off to the beach, although we were waylaid by Hannah and Martha making the most of the streams at Scalby Mill to cool off.

Unfortunately the afternoons surfing session was so good, we forgot to get any photos, but our instructor, Andy, kept us busy with some great tips and we all managed to crack it, with some long bottom turns and tight kick backs off the lips as the break ran left (honestly, we really all did).  Well ok then, we did all manage to stand up on the board at some point, even if was when we were doing the walking the plank game!

At least we had loads of confidence in the quality of the water though!

A great weekend of Yorkshire Water adventures rounded off with ice creams and smiles all round!

Thanks for such a unique experience Yorkshire Water!

Dan

Nothing left to do

It's all over now nothing left to do but we still had a great time going on helicopters

Going to a water treatment works

                      

On day two we went to a resivware an did fishing an cycling

On day three we went to a suigworks then we went on a canal boat then we went pond dipping.

Finally on the last day we went on a walk along the cost then surfing or painting.

Martha

Beside the sea

Following on from yesterday's trip to the sewage works where the cleaned water is returned to the river, this morning we went down to the coast to see how the cleaned water is returned to the sea. Claire and Lindsay from Yorkshire water (bathing waters) took us to a site that is looking at improving the supply of sewage to the treatment works to improve the standard of water produced by the treatment works. 

Cleo and John who work on the site managed to explain how that works. Essentially MASSIVE storage tanks and tunnels to help accommodate the volume of water that currently overflows the normal system (especially following storms).

This was Dan and Evie looking down the hole. I managed to look but, sorry, was too scared to stay long enough to take a picture. 

We then yomped in true 'adventure family' style along the coastal path to see the improved treatment works and the pipe laying that had been put in to help accommodate the increases in flow.

We failed to see anything. Absolutely fantastic the work, thought and commitment to detail and the local environment that I am now learning seems to be the norm for Yorkshire water. (Work completed in time for the fields to be ready for spring planting and the farm in the distance is actually the treatment works)

It is hoped this work will help propel one of Scarborough's bathing beaches from 'good' into the category of excellent which would be fantastic for the tourism trade but obviously also the tourists when they go a paddling, which is just what we did next.

julie

(Incase you were wondering, Scarborough's other bathing beach already is classed as excellent so I think this shows a real commitment to quality) 

Fish and chips

Last thing yesterday, before we headed for the seaside, was a visit at the end of our boat ride to Rodley nature reserve to have a look at a brand new fish pass that has just been completed. We were shown round by Kathryn (Yorkshire water) and Rob (Rodley NR) who explained how the new pass will help fish return from the sea back up the river whilst allowing the weirs to remain.

The weir

The pass

 Even I noticed this was no ordinary pass. Not content with just building a ladder up the weir, Yorkshire water, in partnership with Rodley, have considered the bigger picture and have invested in a new style of pass that will not only allow fish up the river but will provide new habitats for all sorts of river wildlife.

As it is so new and groundbreaking, the team want to test it out and monitor its use so they are planning to insert chips into fish and then follow them through their journeys. 

Only I thought chips in fish was funny......

julie

c2c

C2C? 

Well WE got 2 the sea but S2S would be a better title because it was Sewage to Sea we learnt about to today.

 Understandably a coast to boast is a good idea.

A clean sea is certainly the best for people to play. More about that later.

Looking at how improvements are being made was very impressive.

Holes and tunnels to make sure cleanly processed sewerage gets to sea was interesting to see.

Great people to tell us the facts and to tell us about how they made sure the local community were happy about the disruptions they were making to one of their roads over 2 years.

 

Yorkshire Water are working with the Environment Agency and local councils - Scarborough and North Yorkshire 

Lynn

Bike wash

Great idea to have a water saving hose. Sam tried it out

Lovely

 Worked well when bike has not too much dried on mud but Sam not sure if there is enough pressure to wash off a very dried mud. 

Lynn

Super Saturday

Today was fun. 

I really enjoyed the canal boat and the pond dipping. 

It really was super Saturday 

From Hannah 

Messing about on the river

We joined the water extracted by the sewage works and found ourselves out on the river. Well the canal actually and I have to say that the Leeds Liverpool canal is NOT as I imagined.  Very plush narrow boat called 'Molly moo' expertly steered by Andy from Bears boats, with some invaluable tips from me, took us for a very lazy afternoon down a most beautiful and stretch of waterway, chased by the brightest of blue dragonflies and passing Herons, Swans, signets, geese, fish,. Absolutely fabulous

Anne from Yorkshire water was explaining how they have adopted a mile of the canal and operate a staff volunteering system to help with its maintenance etc, all part of caring for and maintaining the British waterways, more stuff I didn't know they did! 

... and relax

What a great day for messing about in a boat.  So that's what we did.  In a lovely narrow boat (Molly Moo) on the Leeds Liverpool canal actually.  To see the scenery and life pass by at 5mph was really pleasant and enabled us all to see the world from a different and unusual perspective.

Our boat for an hour - Molly Moo

Julie kicks back with a cuppa

We went from urban, heritage, and residential to rural environments without even realising.  And the boat itself was fitted out fantastically.  The portholes made great frames to view the passing world by when below deck.  However it was such a lovely day we all sat out and took in some rays for a while.

Lynn explains the canal boat one way system to Jess (is there one?)

So Jess looks rightfully confused.

That is until we go and rent one for a holiday (cos it was so lovely)

Dan