Water.......Easier to hunt for sources now then post "UGLY".
HOW Triple "REDUNDANT" are your secure sources for potable "WATER".....???
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It's in the front yard and it pumps water all winter long.
I also have some narrow well bailers that I can send down our home's well casing to get water.
I also have some narrow well bailers that I can send down our home's well casing to get water.
Same thread, different day
:https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/water-how-long.13707/post-400668
We will be just fine. Natural gas comes out of the ground 10 miles from here, it runs the well pumps, water treatment plants, and stashes drinking water in a huge tank.
(doxxing myself a bit here
) It is 2 miles from me.Guess why they built that huge tank?
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You all be fancy with a big tower
Up the road, past the Family Dollar
Up the road, past the Family Dollar
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The following water is currently present/utilized on our own land:
We went through the longest dry stretch in living memory a few years ago (7 months of no rain) and we only got through about 35% of our rain water stock.
Our dams have 4" and 6" PVC pipes under the walls (with gate or globe valves). Over summer, the really deep ones (about 50' deep) keep the water cold enough so that the combination of evaporation and stock drinking only draws them down about 6 feet maximum.
All the money we have spent on water capture and infrastructure has increased the value of our land by several times more than that cost.
Most people who go out looking for rural land, know the value of water.
When you are farming livestock, you can truck in hay/extra feed.....but you cant really bring in water for long....you really need 100% reliable water supplies.
The only time you can have too much water is when you are drowning.
- Rain water stored in tanks - about 40,000 gallons
- Agricultural gully dams - collected from our own catchment areas >12 Million gallons
- Creek lines - about 3 miles linear length
- Drag holes - dug into creek flats/floodplain to provide year round water - four of and one with a big pump house
We went through the longest dry stretch in living memory a few years ago (7 months of no rain) and we only got through about 35% of our rain water stock.
Our dams have 4" and 6" PVC pipes under the walls (with gate or globe valves). Over summer, the really deep ones (about 50' deep) keep the water cold enough so that the combination of evaporation and stock drinking only draws them down about 6 feet maximum.
All the money we have spent on water capture and infrastructure has increased the value of our land by several times more than that cost.
Most people who go out looking for rural land, know the value of water.
When you are farming livestock, you can truck in hay/extra feed.....but you cant really bring in water for long....you really need 100% reliable water supplies.
The only time you can have too much water is when you are drowning.
water down every holler and squirting out of ground on regular basis here..multiple rivers,creeks,branches and springs. rain yearly from 45 inches to over 80 inches.
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When people are building dams around here, they often look for a good spring, and then locate the dam so the spring will be in the back wall, below the water line and supplementing the surface runoff inflow/feed/recharge for the dam.
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Water is the one area that I need to improve on here. Right now the only year round water we have is a deep well (650' deep) and a spring fed pond. We use a 12kw propane generator to power the 5hp well pump. The well is a quarter mile from the house and the pond is a little further.
My long range plans are to drill another well closer to the house, and hope that it won't be as deep. My other plan is to put in dams in several of our seasonal creeks to hold back as much water as possible. We have several springs in the area but they are all too far from the house to be of any use, plus they are all lower in elevation. We get little to know rain during summer but we do get a lot of snow in winter.
My long range plans are to drill another well closer to the house, and hope that it won't be as deep. My other plan is to put in dams in several of our seasonal creeks to hold back as much water as possible. We have several springs in the area but they are all too far from the house to be of any use, plus they are all lower in elevation. We get little to know rain during summer but we do get a lot of snow in winter.
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We have three wells & a water collection system, it a cheap system, but works.
If need be we have a creek about a half mile from us.
If need be we have a creek about a half mile from us.
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I have seen a few springs that were developed by the old time farmers around here.
Most seemed to sink a concrete septic tank into the spring outlet and then use that as a settling tank for the spring water. They then ran a decant pipe off the tank to a stock trough about ten feet lower. They would finish the project with a cover over the tank and fencing around the spring/tank to keep the stock from stomping/fouling the spring.
We have our own catchment system on our property. A creek across the street. A lake that is a half mile away, and a river that is about a mile away.
The real unknown is a sump pump in the basement that runs when we have heavy rains. If the power goes out for an extended period of time I could have an indoor swimming pool. I hope I never find out.
The real unknown is a sump pump in the basement that runs when we have heavy rains. If the power goes out for an extended period of time I could have an indoor swimming pool. I hope I never find out.
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DW has family up north in Iron Station, North Carolina, they have a Spring that runs year around, he just dug a hole & let the spring fill it.
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Ben
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Water collection off builds, in pools, swales & open containers when the rain or snow season sets in.
Alabama, Georgia, & South Carolina get more than 50 inches of rain most years, so collecting rain water works well, even in open top containers.
Also, berms & swales for self watering fruit tree & perennial vegetables, because all the water in the world will not sustain you without food of so kind.
Alabama, Georgia, & South Carolina get more than 50 inches of rain most years, so collecting rain water works well, even in open top containers.
Also, berms & swales for self watering fruit tree & perennial vegetables, because all the water in the world will not sustain you without food of so kind.
Some need this same thread once a week, or once a day.Same thread, different day
(Maybe a 2"X4" upside the head)
Several springs around, 5 feed 2 neighbors ponds next to me. Neither have dried up during periods of severe drought. There is a river 1.5 miles down the road. I've got a bunch of water purifiers, both counter top and portable down to small backpacking filters. Also store some rainwater.
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Yep......It amazes me too......how few people really have water sorted out.
The threads about this over on the SB are very infrequent, but when they are posted, the responses show that less than ten or so members really have solid water preps.
Of all capabilities that people once had, reliable, crisis proof access to water is the one that the modern world has done the best job of removing people from.
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I wonder how many lately have carried 5 gallons of water for a mile?
Easier to carry 10, 5 in each hand. Keeps you balanced out.
I've got a 1400lb capacity wagon i could get 8 to 10 5 gallon buckets on and just pull it.
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10? That would be a GI can in each hand. That's not me. Even in Scouts during my prime, two of us would carry just one GI can of water back to our troop's campsite from the communal spigot that was a few 100 yards away. We were bushed.
You have my interest. What kind of wagon do you have? We have a poly Gorilla cart which has a 600-pound capacity.
Depending on the season I do have redundancy.
During the time of year when there is no snow on the ground, I have a well that produces the best drinking water on earth. I have well bailers like posted above in a pinch. I also have a spring and a clear, fast running stream on the property. However, I would probably use a rain water collection system that I use during the summer for agriculture as my backup if I lost my well. The spring and stream are a quarter mile away. In 10 years here, even on the driest periods, the stream always produces abundant water when I would run out of rain water from the crops.
During winter I still have the well plus many feet of snow that I could melt in a pinch. The spring will produce year round but I would need to do a bit of work to clear the snow and chip away some ice. About maybe 30 seconds of work each time. But the snow is deep and very persistent, so that would be my backup. I have used this in the past when I let the well freeze, so I have the right filters to be able to get clean water from metlted snow.
During the time of year when there is no snow on the ground, I have a well that produces the best drinking water on earth. I have well bailers like posted above in a pinch. I also have a spring and a clear, fast running stream on the property. However, I would probably use a rain water collection system that I use during the summer for agriculture as my backup if I lost my well. The spring and stream are a quarter mile away. In 10 years here, even on the driest periods, the stream always produces abundant water when I would run out of rain water from the crops.
During winter I still have the well plus many feet of snow that I could melt in a pinch. The spring will produce year round but I would need to do a bit of work to clear the snow and chip away some ice. About maybe 30 seconds of work each time. But the snow is deep and very persistent, so that would be my backup. I have used this in the past when I let the well freeze, so I have the right filters to be able to get clean water from metlted snow.
And what is plan "B" if the rain water contains radio active material from a up wind nuclear "something".......???
Dust from a nuclear bomb or nuclear reactor meltdown, or cooling ponds for cooling the rods going dry. Or Bird Flu raining down on your roof. Abrasive volcanic ash from an eruption, etc..
if the world is radio active nobody is going to survive, nuclear war is the one thing I do not prepare for, nuclear winter etc.
nobody wins in a nuclear war, we all lose.
the last volcanic eruption from Iceland affected air travel but not this area, Britain has no volcanoes.
as for water off the roof, its filtered going INTO the water barrel, post SHTF it will be filtered again coming OUT and then it will be boiled also.
nobody wins in a nuclear war, we all lose.
the last volcanic eruption from Iceland affected air travel but not this area, Britain has no volcanoes.
as for water off the roof, its filtered going INTO the water barrel, post SHTF it will be filtered again coming OUT and then it will be boiled also.
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More probable is a limited nuclear exchange. So how do you filter volcanic ash...?? Or nuclear power plant meltdown....??
there is no point in repeating myself, see my previous reply.
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