Texas

[RachaelS]

Quote:
Here in Austin everyone has those blue (or green) rain barrels (city gives a rebate), the issue is they are around 55 gallons, which during a drought is not very much. One may last a week, but without rain to re-fill, it is not worth much. What I don't understand is why people are not using their A/C run off? For the most part I can get 5-10 gallons a day off of that. It has to be extremely dry, I mean 10% humidity, to not get runoff. I do not recommend drinking it but it works great to water plants. Just ask the chives that grow all around the run off from my runoff buckets

 

[bnjrob]

I think you'll like the book.

Where did you get your blue rain barrels and how much did they cost? I bought the only two I saw at the feed store for $49 they had little brass taps already at the bottom. My goal is to put a cistern under my back deck which is about 6 feet off the ground. My worry is that diverting all that water that my giant oaks have been used to will cause them to suffer. I'm sure most is just run off, anyway, such as when I got 13 inches in one night recently. I don't understand why everybody doesn't have cisterns here in Texas. In the Caribbean, everyone had a cistern because water was so scarce. You could have either rain water or really expensive de-sal water, which is really expensive to make.

We got our blue barrels several years ago from someone advertising on Craig's List. Think they were like $20/25 dollars each. We had to put the spigots in them ourselves but that was not a problem for us.

As a kid I was told that things like basements, cellars, and underground cisterns weren't common in TX because in most places the water table was too high to risk having something buried in the ground and then have leakage or contamination from water leaking into the space. Don't know why more people don't have at least above-ground storage tanks for water. Although I think it probably has to do with society in general being accustomed to having everything served to them on a platter and not thinking about where things come from and what happens when resources become limited or extinct.

 

[bnjrob]

Here in Austin everyone has those blue (or green) rain barrels (city gives a rebate), the issue is they are around 55 gallons, which during a drought is not very much. One may last a week, but without rain to re-fill, it is not worth much. What I don't understand is why people are not using their A/C run off? For the most part I can get 5-10 gallons a day off of that. It has to be extremely dry, I mean 10% humidity, to not get runoff. I do not recommend drinking it but it works great to water plants. Just ask the chives that grow all around the run off from my runoff buckets

Yeah, for best results you should have a whole system of barrels set up so that the overflow from one barrel goes into the next and so on - ideally with a large cistern to store the rest of the overflow from the barrels. But at least there are some people who are trying to do something even if they only have one barrel.

Could be worse like it is in Colorado where apparently they are not allowed to have rain collection systems. I read up on it a few years ago when I heard about it from a friend in Denver - something about if you have a rain collection system, even just one barrel, you are taking away water that would be going into the ground and thus you would be stealing water from your neighbors. So they made rain collecting illegal. Thought that was one of the stupidest things I had ever heard.

 

[RachaelS]

Could be worse like it is in Colorado where apparently they are not allowed to have rain collection systems. I read up on it a few years ago when I heard about it from a friend in Denver - something about if you have a rain collection system, even just one barrel, you are taking away water that would be going into the ground and thus you would be stealing water from your neighbors. So they made rain collecting illegal. Thought that was one of the stupidest things I had ever heard.

I have heard that also, crazy!!!! I do think everyone should try to do what they can, just trying to say that one 55 gallon drum is not going to do much. My mom lives in town and loves, wait LOVES plants. She is always trying to give me some or give me her seeds, my rule is "If it can't be eaten then it is not worth the water".

Some people don't realize the water they have. My tank is 10k gallons, for some months I am fine, but in bad months (April-October) I have to pay to have water delivered. It is $75 - $90 for 1.5k gallons. Do you know how long 1.5k gallons will last for a family of 4 (2 small kids), dogs, cats and chickens? I try my best to make it last a month. Yes, "if it is yellow, it is mellow" is a rule in the summer. Next time you(as in anyone, not talking abut bnjrob directly) get your water bill, check out how many gallons you use. If you have kids would love to know what you use.

My exception to the "if it can't be eaten", I mean everyone needs an exception

, is my 4 Orchids, they actually don't use much water, but are my eye candy.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Yeah, for best results you should have a whole system of barrels set up so that the overflow from one barrel goes into the next and so on - ideally with a large cistern to store the rest of the overflow from the barrels. But at least there are some people who are trying to do something even if they only have one barrel.

Could be worse like it is in Colorado where apparently they are not allowed to have rain collection systems. I read up on it a few years ago when I heard about it from a friend in Denver - something about if you have a rain collection system, even just one barrel, you are taking away water that would be going into the ground and thus you would be stealing water from your neighbors. So they made rain collecting illegal. Thought that was one of the stupidest things I had ever heard.

In the book I recommended, it would give you a lot of suggestions on how to keep the water that fell on your land. You would just put in berms around your property and keep all the water that falls. You could dig pits and fill them with shredded paper, to hold the water for the tree near by. There's a lot you can do with the way you deal with your land. I think you'll like the book..

 

[bnjrob]

I have heard that also, crazy!!!! I do think everyone should try to do what they can, just trying to say that one 55 gallon drum is not going to do much. My mom lives in town and loves, wait LOVES plants. She is always trying to give me some or give me her seeds, my rule is "If it can't be eaten then it is not worth the water".

Some people don't realize the water they have. My tank is 10k gallons, for some months I am fine, but in bad months (April-October) I have to pay to have water delivered. It is $75 - $90 for 1.5k gallons. Do you know how long 1.5k gallons will last for a family of 4 (2 small kids), dogs, cats and chickens? I try my best to make it last a month. Yes, "if it is yellow, it is mellow" is a rule in the summer. Next time you(as in anyone, not talking abut bnjrob directly) get your water bill, check out how many gallons you use. If you have kids would love to know what you use.

My exception to the "if it can't be eaten", I mean everyone needs an exception

, is my 4 Orchids, they actually don't use much water, but are my eye candy.

That would get expensive. During the summer I haul 25-35 gallons of water every day to the chickens in the pasture. A tank of water like you have would not last us long at all. We're in the country but on community water so we've been on water restrictions for over a year. But we have no plants on this property at all except for food/medicinal plants for either us or the animals. As time goes on and I see how the world is getting and watching natural resources getting depleted, I'm working toward being more self-sufficient.

 

[RachaelS]

PS bnjrob, when did you change your pic? Throws me off not seeing the puppy.

 

[LBejaran]

I have heard that also, crazy!!!! I do think everyone should try to do what they can, just trying to say that one 55 gallon drum is not going to do much. My mom lives in town and loves, wait LOVES plants. She is always trying to give me some or give me her seeds, my rule is "If it can't be eaten then it is not worth the water".

Some people don't realize the water they have. My tank is 10k gallons, for some months I am fine, but in bad months (April-October) I have to pay to have water delivered. It is $75 - $90 for 1.5k gallons. Do you know how long 1.5k gallons will last for a family of 4 (2 small kids), dogs, cats and chickens? I try my best to make it last a month. Yes, "if it is yellow, it is mellow" is a rule in the summer. Next time you(as in anyone, not talking abut bnjrob directly) get your water bill, check out how many gallons you use. If you have kids would love to know what you use.

My exception to the "if it can't be eaten", I mean everyone needs an exception

, is my 4 Orchids, they actually don't use much water, but are my eye candy.

I've talked to my Dad about setting up something to save rainwater, but it would only be for outdoor use. We've tried to figure out a way to attach our groundwater pump to some of our indoor appliances, but it would never work with the setup we have now. For now, though, I just put all my empty buckets out in the open when it is raining and catch as much as possible. Then I put it in one of my food-safe buckets and use it for the plants that can't be moved from the patio.

I'm tempted to set up an outdoor area just for doing laundry, though. Sure, it would be hard work to use the pump water and hand-wash clothes, but it would certainly be less expensive than using the washer. There are 6 people living in this house currently and the washer is running all weekend and some days throughout the week. Plus, I'd be able to hang up more of our clothes outdoors to dry. It's kind of wonderful seeing clothes hanging outdoors, being blown dry by the wind and sun. It makes me giddy, hehe!

 

[bnjrob]

In the book I recommended, it would give you a lot of suggestions on how to keep the water that fell on your land. You would just put in berms around your property and keep all the water that falls. You could dig pits and fill them with shredded paper, to hold the water for the tree near by. There's a lot you can do with the way you deal with your land. I think you'll like the book..

Sounds like a great book!

 

[bnjrob]

PS bnjrob, when did you change your pic? Throws me off not seeing the puppy.

Just recently.