WHEN THE WELL IS DRY WE WILL KNOW THE WORTH OF WATER!
When the well is dry we will know the worth of water - Benjamin Franklin
@offgrid-online recently posted; Digging for OffGrid Water Systems and it forced me to evaluate this most precious commodity. The quote of Benjamin Franklin has never been more real than since we find ourselves in a drought. Last year our wells ran dry and we had to dig far deeper. It is rather surreal considering that 4 years ago our semi-desert valley was flooded! The waterfall on our property has only flowed once since then - very briefly.
Homesteading and being so far from town means you already have the prepper mentality. At least you should. Within hours of the flood we were shocked to realize that, except for our little farm nobody but NOBODY in the entire valley was prepared. Not a water tank. Not a back up source of power. Barely enough food for a week! We are all connected via radio, but the flood took down phone lines, power lines, water piping . Within 24 hours nothing retained its charge. The flood waters cut off everyone . It should've been an eye opener. It wasn't.
My husband is very much of the prepper mindset that we need to arm ourselves for any eventuality. From the start he put big water tanks on the mountain tops to gravity feed into our houses and to our animals. Rain tanks stand against each of the houses to be gutter filled for drinking water. Which we filter. Of course. The little bit of overnight dew keeps them filled. When we travel we always take a 25 litre bottle.
Grey water has been directed onto our fruit trees and overflows into our veggie gardens. That is, what doesn't first re-cycle through the house. A shared bath fills buckets to flush the toilet. After the baby's cloth nappies are rinsed. Generally the bath water can quite easily do a load of washing before it's flush through the toilet.
There is a joke about "saving water, by drinking coffee" But if the wells ran dry what would be used to make that coffee? While we often hear the overstressed pump in the borehole sucking air we pray that it continues to sustain us and our homestead. I believe when the rain comes and water is again plentiful we will continue to preserve it. Surely this lifegiving source is more precious than gold or silver. How do you concerve water?
We built several ponds to sustain our animals and have tanks for runoff water from our barns. Our water is city water, so we prepare for if that is ever shut off.
Oh that's great! I don't understand how people can be in a farm environment and not prepare accordingly. Surely that's how our forefathers did it
This post has won a 3 SBD prize in the Offgrid Water System Contest. Contest Results: Offgrid Water System Posts. Thank you for sharing knowledge and personal experience :)
That is wonderful news! Thank you for the contest. I hope it has inspired others
And then there's a quote from Bob Marley going the other way - in the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.
We live a world of abundance, our problem is we don't know how to care for it. I am lucky, we live on rainwater, and it is perfectly safe to do so. We have a bore for emergencies, and the groundwater is not polluted. We have a creek running from the forest. Others are not so lucky. Airborne contaminants and polluted groundwater seem to be the norm in many places, what folly that we don't care for that most essential of the elements that make life possible.
Wise words and a beaut blog my child. Love you!
Thanks Dad
You have come up with some great ideas. Using your grey water smartly is always a challenge.Thanks for sharing your information.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment