Life and times of a new farmer/homesteader
Belle's homesteading challenge, Day 2: {
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Sunday, January 7, 2007
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Collecting rainwater, how I do it: by Raymond For a while after I moved here the well was dry, and I couldn't truck in enough water to do everything I needed. Finding a way down to the river was tougher than I anticipated, and coming back with two five gallon buckets full of water was a bear, so I decided to collect a little rain water. I now have water in the well, and pretty much everywhere else, so while it's not necessary now it will be useful during the hot part of the summer. To collect rainwater takes four things: A roof, gutters, something to hold the water in, and rain. Any roof will do, although it might be a great deal more difficult to gutter a roof on a yurt, a tent, a teepee, or an underground house. I imagine it can be done, but I wouldn't know how. Fortunately, my house, barn, and sheds have pretty standard roofs. For gutters, you can make your own out of lumber, or use bamboo or old pvc pipe cut in half lengthwise, or you can use standard storebought gutters. If you decide to use lumber, don't use anything that might have arsenic or any other nasties in it, such as pressure treated lumber. Use regular 1x4's, caulk them well with silicone, and paint with a good weatherproofing paint. I like bamboo, but if you don't grow or have access to your own, it can be expensive. Make sure there are good downspouts, although if you make your own a hole works fine. Make sure they are cleaned regularly, and put some sort of heavy screen over them to keep big branches and stuff out. You can get it at your local hardware store, or expanded metal or good plastic hardware cloth works. Try not to use galvanized, unless you know it's lead free. You can also get small baskets that fit into downspouts, they look like wire eggs and they work nicely. If you can do both that would be even better. Put a barrel under each downspout. You can hook barrels up in tandem for more storage. I an fortunate enough to live about an hour and a half from a major city, and I can get food grade plastic 55 gallon barrels from some of the local food processors. I got four from Yoshidas in Portland for about $5 a piece. They used to carry soy sauce, and while they weren't clean when I got them, they rinsed out easily. Look around your local area for food processors, they are often a good source for food grade plastic buckets and barrels. Sometimes, you can even get them free. I got ten food grade "pickle buckets" from a McD's that way once for free. Whatever you do, make sure your barrels never contained any paints, solvents, caustics, or petroleum products in them. You want to use this water, and you don't want to poison your plants, pets, livestock, or yourself. It's best to use foodgrade. Old wine and whiskey barrels work too, although they don't last as long and can often be quite expensive. They do look nicer though. My barrels are all a dayglow blue color, which doesn't blend very nicely with their surroundings. I'm looking to paint the outsides with some plastic paint at sometime. Another project, although that one is WAY down the list. To use the water, you can syphon or pump it out. Keep in mind, if you syphon: the smaller the diameter the hose you use, the easier it is to get started, but the longer it will take to fill your bucket, plant watering can, or animal waterer. I use a drill operated pump that I got from a hardware store for under $8 and two short lengths of garden hose. This particular pump works nicely, as it attatches directly to the garden hose and it's easy to move around. I think it weighs about a pound. I have two barrels on the house, and one on the barn. I'm going to put up another on the barn when I get some more gutter, and more all around when I get more barrels. I use my cordless drill to pump water out for my chickens and to flush my toilet when the pumps not working. With as much as it rains here, I have a pretty good supply of about 160 gallons of rainwater, and I never use it all. I haven't tried to make it through a summer though. As an aside, if you are going to drink or cook with this water, I would STRONGLY suggest getting a high quality water filter for home use. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea for using it for everything else too, except maybe flushing the toilet. Anyways, I hope that this helps for those of us tring to be self sufficient. Raymond { Last Page } { Page 136 of 181 } { Next Page } |
