Red water for Laundry

One day when Grandma Alice was still alive we were visiting and our conversation centered around what did you do kind of stuff. I asked her, while you were living down at DryLake, I know that the water was scarce, what did you do when you needed to do your wash. (The water in the dirt tanks at drylake is red, because of the red color of the dirt. If you swim in the water it will turn your cloths red) She told me that they would take a wagon with barrels and go to the dirt tank and fill the barrels full of water. They then brought them back to thier home took their ashes from the wood stove and drop them in the water. As the ashes fell to the bottom of the barrel the water became clear and they then would have nice clean water to do their laundry. Pretty smart I think.