early morning...

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water...

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water...

John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

oh the irony...

Kind of ironic that I just posted a video of the state of my water supply while Study Butte / Terlingua is under a water emergency due to problems with the municipal water system.  Did a supply run to Alpine yesterday which included picking up over 28 gallons of bottled water for a neighbor who has no catchment in place.  Also looks like my kitchen has relapsed into its' natural state of chaos.  Stay tuned for an upcoming time lapse video on my channel of the transformation back to order.  89,91,73, .01",W

seemed appropriate...

Isaiah 41:17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.  

thirsty...

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21st Century

Indoor running water thanks to Carolyn at H2O to Go.  

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water

Supply run to Alpine today.  All stocked up now as to avoid the chili cook off madness down south.  The grocery store had a really good sale on bottle water so I took the bait.  Would feel guilty about all those plastic bottles if I wasn't fairly certain that the recycling center in Alpine actually recycles them - but it still seems silly and a huge waste of resources.  Got me to thinking about something that TFL visitors always ask me:  How do you filter your rainwater?  My answer almost 7 years into this project has always been...I don't - yet.  My Georgia hillbilly friend Ronald Nelson has often suggested that I try some ceramic dome filters so I ordered some today to "field test".  Most of these type filters are good for about 3000 gallons of water.  My intake is is less than a gallon a day so one filter could last over 8 years especially since I will be filtering relatively clear rainwater as opposed to dirty swamp water.  Adding a simple heat pasteurization step before filtering would guarantee no bugaboos in my belly.  72,79,57,0,B  

State of the Water Address

Had lots of rain in the area lately but not much here at TFL.  Reckon it is time to asses the catchment and usage for my desert empire.  One of the things I was warned about when I first moved out here was evaporation from the water tanks.  I have discovered that it really isn't much of an issue.  I have been checking one of my 1550 gallon tanks - without being completely sealed, in over a year it has only lost about 75 gallons to evaporation.

This is where we stand today:

Total rainfall for 2013 so far = 5"

Total water in storage = 9,950 gallons

During a light rain event of 1", my roof surfaces catch 2250 gallons

During a heavy rain event of 1"when the creek runs, I catch an additional 3000 gallons via pump.

Water usage per week:

Ben and Bud = 175 gallons

Greenhouse = 140 gallons

Chickens and rabbits = 1 gallon

Washing dishes/showers = 25 gallons

I have yet to set up purification and filtration for my potable water from my catchment for cooking and drinking because I only use about 5 gallons per week.  For that I fill 5 gallon jugs ($1.75)

from the water machine outside the grocery store when I do supply runs to Alpine.  79,88,69, .08",B,0

a chance...

Woke up to an unexpected cloudy day.  Checked the forecast and it seems we have a 30% chance of rain overnight.  Checked the warehouse and found just enough parts to rig a temporary downspout for the barn gutter...just in case.  Note: Rumor has it that someone has finally bought the Big Bend Ranch Supply and is planning on opening a convenience store and perhaps a gas station.  53,63,50,0,B,0

waterday

Transferred 150 gallons of last nights rain from a greenhouse tank to the house tank.  FedEx dropped off black trays I ordered for a solar water distiller.  Had dinner at the Cain's - food and company was so good I forgot to take a picture.  Raced home ahead of some rain that amounted to just a trace...looks like more storms from the west might breach the vortex later tonight.  Swamp frogs are making quite a racket tonight.  96,104,71, .12,B

tank move two

Double trip to Study Butte for a post office run - but missed the screwy bank hours.  Just makes no sense to me so I keep forgetting that the bank is closed from 11 - 2. 

Relocated 400 more gallons from one of the lower tanks then did the tip'n'roll with the empty one and got it close to its' final resting place.  The Panther Mountain clan is out this weekend so got treated to a fireworks show.  I reciprocated with a flame thrower show. 

 

It's getting hot out here - looks like swamp cooler season might be coming on early this year.  82, 95,54,0,B

water shuffle...

Moved 1000 gallons today with the gennie, a pump and 200 ft. of hose to a high tank...dumped the last 200 gallons.  Now I got an empty far away tank ready to tip'n'roll.  Gonna have to climb inside and scrub out the slime before placing this one in position on the SE end of the greenhouse.  Still have the other tank to empty (pulled off 125 gallons at the end of the day for some select yuccas) but in no big rush to get that one into place.  With two 3,000 gallon tanks hooked up to the gutters - I will need about 4" of rain to fill them and I reckon it will be awhile till TFL accumulates that much this year.  80,94,52, 0,C

X

Visit from my friends Ryan and Xilia...end caps and straps on the north gutter...highest overnight low since November 22nd...happy cows...giving up 3000 gallons of 2 1/2 year old stored creek water for a neighbor to wet his talcum road (clearing two old tanks to hook up to the greenhouse catchment system for a total of 12,000 gallons of storage capacity)...shorts and sandals weather.  65,87,53,0,W

The desert's dry, so I looked to the sky....

Lets talk about water catchment tonight....I just received delivery of three 3000 gallons storage tanks. Had them dropped at the end of my driveway for now as I have to prepare the pads (leveled sand) for them on the east end of the greenhouse.

To begin with, we will use the following formula: 1" of rain per square foot of surface area = .6 gallons of water. My little patch of Texas averages about 9" of rain per year (mostly in Aug, Sept, and Oct) My total storage capacity is now at 21,650 gallons - the new 9000 gallons of which will be guttered in to the roof system on the greenhouse. I will need 7.5" of rain per year to fill these tanks off a 2000 sq, ft. roof.

My little hut has a 550 gallon tank guttered in. It has only overflowed twice in two years from the runoff of the small roof on the house. Next to the seasonal draws on my property I have 12,100 gallons of storage capacity. Last good rainfall that I caught - I was able to pump 3000 gallons in just under an hour into one of the tanks. Over the past year I have collected and stored about 9000 gallons from this runoff to be used for greenhouse irrigation later this year. The beauty behind these seasonal streams is that water runs through them from an area about a quarter mile square. Not accounting for what soaks into the ground - that much area equals 4,181,760 gallons of water rushing by my place after only 1" of rain. It's all a matter of being ready to catch it and having a place to put it when it happens. 54,80,32,0

My tank runnith over...

Got a call late last night from my step-niece Kristen...I mention her by name because I know she reads this blog...Hi Kmom...that was at about 10:30PM - and yes I was almost asleep. As I resumed my search for slumber, the rain started to fall...I ended up getting up again around 11:45 because it was coming down hard. One last good pounding came around midnight and I just happened to take a look out at my overflow from my catchment tank just in time to see it start flowing briefly. Got .63" of rain from that outburst. runeth

Cloudy morning and slowly the sun broke through for the rest of the day. My road is drying out nicely. Removed the forms from yesterdays section of the battery house. Forgot to tarp off the bldg last night so it will take a couple of days for the wall sections to dry out completely. Pumped another 150 gallons from my catchment tank to one of my other tanks. I was full up to the 550 gallon mark. Noticed a big dead spider in the tank so I will have to check my gutter screens tomorrow.

Looks like the rain is done for awhile. Ike is heading northeast after it pounds Galveston and surrounding areas on that side of Texas. Soon I will be wishing for some rain again. Finished reading Buddhism for Dummies and listened to Science Friday on NPR. Working on the list for my shopping run to Alpine on Monday....soon to be free again.