Rain Barrels and Catchment Systems
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Here are the latest additions to the urban homestead:
They each hold 195 gallons so we will now have 485 gallons of stored water on hand, in addition to the jugs in the usual emergency supply. We are going to hook them up in a daisy chain and tie them into the drip system. While rain is abundant most of the year in the Willamette Valley, we do get dry spells in the summer that can last weeks on end without a drop. In addition to helping with the garden, the 485 gallons would be enough to get us through the longest summer dry spells if normal water service was somehow cutoff without having to lug water from the polluted Columbia Slough.
Speaking of rain catchment systems, I was recently in Antigua and Barbuda and learned that rain barrels are required for all new construction under their building code. I also saw this old school water filtration system that uses a series of limestone jugs. You pour water in the top container and it slowly works its way through the rock with the water coming out at the bottom clean and purified:
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: _________
Awesome Ken I Support this
Awesome Ken I Support this Thread
Around Here this Season Hardly if Any Rain 
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fishcane
My house has a gutter fed
My house has a gutter fed sistern. pretty cool stuff
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Sycamore Slough
Nice - looking tanks. They
Nice - looking tanks. They look like tough Livestock - grade plastic, like Hog-trough material.
I've been grabbing the Blue plastic barrels w/ lids of various sizes whenever they're out there, food-grade stuff.
They are nice watertight Dog Food storage bins. I want to build a home-made 'Compost-tumbler' out of a 50-60 gallon drum, with auxiliary compost tea systems run with small solar panel and aquarium pumps.
Something a friend mentioned: if you are collecting roof - gutter water for gardening, the asphalt shingles may carry some petrol residue.
Metal or slate roof would likely be cleaner.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: _
Nice stuff, Ken D.
Nice stuff, Ken D.
Which do you anticipate first -- the demise and collapse of the union, or impending natural disaster?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: jazfish
After so many years wouldn't
After so many years wouldn't the limestone system get clogged? That looks really old. I wonder how long it lasts.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: justdance
It looks old, but it doesn't
It looks old, but it doesn't look dry.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
I used to have a 2 gallon
I used to have a 2 gallon household water crock from (probably) the 1930's that had a filtering stone in it. It was the bottom layer before the water sat and then came out the spigot. Sadly, someone decided the inside of the crock and the stone needed cleaning and used dishwashing soap... it was impossible to get the soap out of the stone, and impossible to get the stone out of the crock and from then on the water tasted like soap so we didn't use it anymore.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: jeff
the correct term is 'cistern'
the correct term is 'cistern'.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: charmskooldropout
I've got guns and water-come
I've got guns and water-come and get me commies!
Honey, have you seen my bug out bag?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fishcane
>>the correct term is
>>the correct term is 'cistern'.
Perhaps the spelling was incorrect, but I had the term correct.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: 2 Room Shack
i recently had to support a
i recently had to support a talk on water in california.
after it was over i asked one of the professors about the viability of home cisterns here. (so cal desert). there are local ordinances prohibiting it also. he basically said he didn't see it happening here and we usually only get rain in the winter...
said the next level is businesses and universities recycling their water. toilet to tap. its the future.