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Climate was important for Dawn and me when we were figuring out where we'd want to retire. After Mesa Arizona we wanted four seasons and temperatures which wouldn't exceed 100°F. We forgot to check on the wind which, here is southern Idaho, is a real booger! High winds -- along with 90° + temps -- cause veggies to really dry out; if it weren't for the drip irrigation system we have we'd be eating dust instead of potatoes and onions!

If TSHTF, we're going to have a tough time keeping our irrigation system going, since we'll only be able to pump about 1-1½ gal/min with our backup hand-pump. I have no idea how to fix this, and I'd better figure SOMETHING out or I might end up with a garden sans water.

Has anyone figured out a way to keep a drip irrigation system going if all you have is a hand-pump? I'd really like to figure this one out.
 
Duncan said:
We forgot to check on the wind which, here is southern Idaho, is a real booger! High winds -- along with 90° + temps -- cause veggies to really dry out; if it weren't for the drip irrigation system we have we'd be eating dust instead of potatoes and onions!

If TSHTF, we're going to have a tough time keeping our irrigation system going, since we'll only be able to pump about 1-1½ gal/min with our backup hand-pump. I have no idea how to fix this, and I'd better figure SOMETHING out or I might end up with a garden sans water.
Has anyone figured out a way to keep a drip irrigation system going if all you have is a hand-pump? I'd really like to figure this one out.
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Put those devil winds to work. A small version of an old-timey windmill and a storage tank would likely work fine if it only needs to supply water to the garden.
If you don't have that much wind, you won't need that much water and vice-versa.
Yes they still work, and they don't cost that much money:
627702-2.jpg

You may well(pun) find it supplying backup power too for you in the future by charging backup batteries when it's not pumping water.
https://www.farmranchwindmills.com/
This one is 6' dia, 27' tall. There are smaller ones.
 
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Duncan said:
Has anyone figured out a way to keep a drip irrigation system going if all you have is a hand-pump? I'd really like to figure this one out.
Click to expand...

In case you haven't researched rain amounts... in 09/10 I had a couple years of severe drought. I was trying to grow several acres of veggies to sell at the farmers market, cash crop.

I was digging into the National Weather Service website and discovered... 1 inch of rain on 1 acre of land is equal to 27,000 gallons of water (approx). Thats a lot of water. Even if I were to irrigate a 1ft wide strip down a row a veggies And, I only had 1/4 acre of veggies... thats still 2,250 gallons of water to equal 1 inch of rain.

Depending of the vegetable type... they needed about 6000 to 7000 gallons of water per month just for a 1/4 acre garden.

Just thought I'd toss the info out there. The first year of drought (09) I had 4 acres of veggies planted. The amount of water they needed each month was staggering. I was hauling water from a neighbors fish pond, 550 gallons a trip. The money I spent on diesel fuel ate up all potential profit, a disaster.

I'd never thought about the weight of water until I started hauling it in tanks either. 550 gallons of water weighs 4565lbs.

Anyway, weather here wasn't bad today. temp was in the low 90's, humidity was only 47%.
 
Supervisor42 said:
Put those devil winds to work. A small version of an old-timey windmill and a storage tank would likely work fine if it only needs to supply water to the garden.
If you don't have that much wind, you won't need that much water and vice-versa.
Yes they still work, and they don't cost that much money:

You may well(pun) find it supplying backup power too for you in the future by charging backup batteries when it's not pumping water.
https://www.farmranchwindmills.com/
This one is 6' dia, 27' tall. There are smaller ones.
Click to expand...
I was looking at the most common setup: an 8' diameter turbine and a ten-meter (33 ft) tower size/ With the sucker-rod I'd have to mounts it right above the well head, which may or may not be blocked by trees (I'd have to take some measurements and pencil-whip it.

I'e already sized my well for a backup hand-pump which can get about 1 gal/min without too much exertion. This new well-pump pipe is ¾" PVC which can piggy-back on my existing pipe. I looked at the NREL data for the Twin Falls area, which is an average wind velocity of ~5 m/sec which would work with the Aermotor for a garden irrigation and animal feeding. But were also talking about a cost of US$3,899 (new tower, rebuilt Aermotor) plus installation. I don't know if that's the most cost-effective option.
 
Today there was a strange cloud cover that kept the sun hidden for hours, while the rest of the sky was blue and light clouds. It stayed cooler today, yay.
It will be 100 tomorrow with an EXTREME UV RANGE.
Sunrise 6:31; sunset 8:35.
Don't forget to try to find that comet! Look around 10 p.m. to the left of the Big Dipper, but lower.
 
phideaux said:
At 4:45 pm it's 88 deg with 70 % humidity.

Can't breath out there .

Don't think it's gonna get any better.

Jim
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Just when we were worried you wouldn't follow the "stay inside/lockdown" rules, along comes the supreme authority to assure us that you will.
Good news! You will have a 0.00% chance of catching covid! :green man:
How many months until Christmas?
 
Bacpacker said:
76 at 6 am. 96 at 530pm and dew point of 69.
I am ready for winter.
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On topic: Ours turned upside-down today when the rain came in.
It went from 97 to 79 in a little over an hour.
Cold! ☃ (for me).
 
Patchouli said:
that sounds so sweeeeet! It's 99; feels like 104. Down to a stuffy 80 by 5 a.m.
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Lol no thank you. The handful of times it gets to that here we start to get elderly people dying. Too hot for me I'll keep my weather where some winter mornings its colder than -10 if you keep that extreme heat. Lol.
 
Hot. Nasty. Triple digit heat index. Nothing is moving outside. Nothing. Very quiet out. Even the farm next door is quiet. Supposed to be this way for days
 
phideaux said:
Next 7 days all above 90 , up to 97.

I'm getting cabin fever,

Jim
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Yep, you're gonna be toast! (sorry, couldn't resist)
Welcome to my world!!!
We hit 90's in late May and had 'em ever since.
Just remember - "liquid cooled".
Sweating won't cut it
Remember the hayfield days?
We'd empty a 5-gallon cooler in 2 hours.
If you get busy outside, drink something every 15 minutes.
We're not 18 anymore. :(
 
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