Water management and Strategies for water conservation

[newfoundland]

I certainly would not consider my climate to be Mediterranean but temperate. As we are an island we have a maritime climate, which gives us cool wet winters and mild summers. On the east coast we are more influenced by the continental climate and are therefore a bit drier than on the west coast. We also have harsher winters as we often having prevailing winds from Scandinavia and Russia in the winter. Compared to many climates it rains a lot here, but that gives us lush green pastures and agricultural land. Never met a farmer who didn't complain about the weather though. It is always, too wet, too dry, too cold, too hot! On the whole I think we are quite lucky.

 

[bustedchicks]

We all need 1 of these.

http://urbantimes.co/2014/04/towers-harvesting-water/

Given that I live in a temperate rainforest with one of these I can collect more water than I will ever use.

 

[perchie.girl]

We all need 1 of these.

http://urbantimes.co/2014/04/towers-harvesting-water/

Given that I live in a temperate rainforest with one of these I can collect more water than I will ever use.

I followed the link and its a remarkable piece of technology. It would be perfect for those of us who live in an environment that gets fog. I am going to include it on the link page. I am certain it uses technology that emulates how pine trees sweep moisture out of the fog. Ever been under a pine tree on a very foggy day? Its like the tree creates its own rain.

Thank you

deb

 

[bustedchicks]

Ever been in a redwood forest on a foggy day?! ... soaked. Lol

 

[Triple Willow]

Hi Deb... Great thread you have started! I have already learned something so simple I don't know why I didn't figure it out myself - fish in the rain barrel! We have a huge problem with mosquitos. We have to keep the water dumped out of everything or they breed like crazy and make being outside miserable. I have been setting out buckets of water and using "Dunks" to kill mosquitos. They work really well but we have so many that it doesn't make much of a dent in the population. We have bait shops here that sell minnows for fishing. I suppose minnows would work just as well as a goldfish...?

 

[perchie.girl]

Ever been in a redwood forest on a foggy day?! ... soaked. Lol

Trees are amazing feats of architeture.... and yep been in one near Santa Cruz.... Trunk diameters of more than six feet tops so tall you can only imagine the detail.

Tallest indigenous tree on my land is about six feet on average.... The ones where the stream bed flows through grow upwards to fifteen or twenty.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Hi Deb... Great thread you have started! I have already learned something so simple I don't know why I didn't figure it out myself - fish in the rain barrel! We have a huge problem with mosquitos. We have to keep the water dumped out of everything or they breed like crazy and make being outside miserable. I have been setting out buckets of water and using "Dunks" to kill mosquitos. They work really well but we have so many that it doesn't make much of a dent in the population. We have bait shops here that sell minnows for fishing. I suppose minnows would work just as well as a goldfish...?

Yes they would as long as the temps in the tank support the minnow requirements. Another thing you could consider are Mosquito fish. Mosquito fish are often offered free by the vector control district for your area.

I chose gold fish because they are capable of withstanding a WIDE variety of temperatures. Even can survive the Tank freezing over. They go dormant. stop eating and settle to the bottom even their breathing slowes to a disturbingly low rate. They have been known to survive over a hundred days without eating though this kind of dormacy.

Ohh here is a good article on them. Gold fish Article
I Dont feed mine at all in the water tubs for my horse and goats But then I dont scrub my tubs completely clean when I dump them out on cleaning day.... Just a light scrub with salt.... The salt wont hurt the fish at all. When I started a new tank in the store we would put in a small handfull about a quarter cup of Water softener salt for a 20 gallon tank. Its good for most fish.

For what its worth You can usually buy feeder Goldfish 10 for a couple of bucks. Get the smallest ones. They will grow to the size they need to survive in your container.

deb

 

[Triple Willow]

Somebody was talking about using water caught from a roof with asphalt shingles for drinking water... The house I live and grew up in was built about 1965. My parents had a cistern build as most all houses "out in the country" had. The problem, well one of the problems, with our cistern was that it had a wood cover that finally wore out. Now and then when checking the water level mom would run up on a snake. LOL I suppose they were using the cistern too. For a while, like most everybody else, we had our water hauled from town. I remember it was $15 for a whole truckload. lol Somewhere along the way they come up with the idea of piping the water from the roof to the cistern. That cut way down on buying water. Our water supply was never filtered. I guess the bigger gross stuff just settled to the bottom and I believe every now and then mom would pour in some bleach. I remember one time we were gone a few days and when we got back I went to get a glass of water out of the refrigerator (glass jug). There were mosquito larvea floating all in it. lol None of that ever killed anybody or even made us sick that I know of. My mom is 86 and still going strong and I'm sure all the water she had growing up was about the same. Finally the "water line" was ran out here and we hooked up with it. To be honest, I think the water we were drinking was just as safe or safer than what we get now because of all the mess they intentionally put in it. I wish we had a metal roof and a filter system. I'd go back to catching water instead of buying it.

 

[Triple Willow]

Deb... Thanks for the info on the fish. I have never heard of mosquito fish. A lot of people put minnows in their ponds to help control mosquitos. Goldfish sound good.

Speaking of fish and ponds... we have a problem when it is really hot and it comes a big rain - somehow it does something with the oxygen in the water and there will be a big die-off of fish in the pond. I have seen that several times. People who are trying to raise fish usually aerate their pond somehow to keep that from happening.

Something I'd like to learn about is raising fish in tanks and how to filter that water... but that's another discussion.

 

[Beekissed]

I've heard of that happening when the surrounding fields have been fertilized and the run off gets into the ponds. It could also be the result of an algae bloom....here's some great info on using barley straw in ponds to prevent that. Says it should be done now..this month...to prevent algae from taking hold later in the hotter months.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/a-fact/0012.html