Overflowing

On Friday, we had over 18mm of rain in about 24 hours! Our tanks, which were already pretty full from the weeks of rain in early summer, were simply overflowing. This one, which fills from our house roof (about 115sqm), apparently doesn't have a big enough overflow outlet! It was simply gushing out the inlet, and I ended up going down and pulling the cap off the pipe so that it would flow out into the street drain rather than overflowing here near the house. At least the pipes will have had a good flushing out!

We ran entirely off our stainless steel tank last summer and most of winter (you can see it in the background), and managed to use no town water, though the levels did get mighty low once or twice. So far though, with the two tanks, we have had so much water we don't know what to do with it!

Still, conserving water is so ingrained in us now, that even when we have plenty, we use very little. Our washing machine and dishwasher use only minimal water (washing machine about 50l a load, dishwasher about 11), we have water saving shower heads, and are careful every time we turn a tap on. It all pays off though, and hopefully we will have plenty of water to see us through the winter (which typically has less rain here), without any worries.

Four Sources of Water

Permaculture theory (as stated by Rosemary Morrow in her book, "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture, yes you're going to hear a lot about this book over the next little while) states that you should always have at least 2 sources of water, just in case one is lost or contaminated. This can be any combination of tanks, bores, dams, or town water. If your only water source is tank water for example, you should have two smaller tanks rather than one large one etc. Well, our new 5000L water tank arrived yesterday afternoon, bringing us up to 4 water sources - 3 tanks and town water backup. I've mentioned before that though we have a mains water connection, we intend to only use it in an emergency. Since we moved, mains water has only ever been used to top up the new house connected tank when it was first installed (via the automatic top up that was installed, and was turned off as soon as handover was completed). We now have over 50,000L in water storage, and after the recent rains, both main tanks are at half and three quarters full. Another good rain, and they'll be full.

That's where this new tank comes in. We'll pump into it regularly (it's not connected to a downpipe) when the tanks are nearing capacity, giving us some extra storage space. It will be used entirely for watering the front garden, and will save a lot of carting buckets back and forth. I'm hoping to set up some drip watering systems to make watering even easier (and more water efficient).

As you can also see in the photo, the front garden is starting to take shape. Besides the tank, you can see the black compost bin in the bottom right corner, that is about 1/4 full now, with a pile of grass next to it for covering food scraps with. it's hard to see, but the climbing peas are about 18 inches tall now, and starting to flower. I'm hoping we'll get a harvest in before it gets too hot for them. Weeds abound in the rest of the front yard, but in the next few weeks they will all be mown down then smothered with lots of mulch. Then I'll be able to get started, albeit a little late, on my spring planting.

On a good gardening note though, the strawberry harvests just keep getting bigger and bigger! I need to pick them more often, as you can probably see, some of them are getting rotten spots where they're lying on the damp ground too long. I had to chuck about a dozen really rotten ones to the chooks, but most of these were salvageable, and have now been frozen for the next batch of strawberry jam. Organic and homegrown this time!

Getting Close Now!

A couple of days ago, our second tank went in, and it was all connected up to our roof. The building company only put in enough allowance to have 2 downpipes connected, but we paid the extra to have the whole roof (about 115 sqm) connected up. Hopefully it will fill quickly. As you can see, we've had a bit of rain since it went in, but mostly the annoying drizzle that the vegie garden loves, but not enough to really fill up the tanks.

The second tank is the same size as our stainless steel one, but is dug half under the ground to bring it below the roofline so that gravity will fill it. The water will run down the downpipes (with screens at the top), along a pipe under the ground, then back up the pipe on the side of the tank. Though the pipes will remain filled with water (there is a drain on the other side to flush them periodically), the screens will keep mosquitoes or bugs out.

Now all that is left really is connecting up the hot water and temperature test, clean up, and the final council inspection. We still don't expect to be in before the end of the month, what with paperwork etc, and getting the flooring done. Hopefully the end is in sight now though.

Just in time.

After several months without rain, we've now gone to the opposite extreme here, with about 4 days of rain, and counting. We were sorely in need of it, being down to about 4 rungs of water in our tank. That's still several thousand litres, but we were starting to become concerned. Thankfully, after the heavy rain today, we're back up to around 2/3 of a tank, which should see us through the next couple of months, even if we don't get any more rain.

We had a few issues with the guttering at the back of the shed overflowing because it was choked with leaves. We didn't realise that until the heavy rain hit, too late to clear it. We did get it done in a break in the rain, but haven't had too much more since. Hopefully we'll get another lot of rain overnight, then it will clear in the morning, for DD's 4th birthday. We're all heartily sick of not being able to hear each other over the drumming of the rain on the roof.

Of course, it would have been even better if this tank, delivered the week before the rain, had been installed! It would have been half full by now, and might have stopped some of the buildup of water lying around the back of the house! Even once the tank is in though, I think we're going to have some serious drainage issues here.

Of course, these drainage issues are kind of serious too. This is our driveway! It's not really the water that's the problem, but the mud. It's that really slippery clay, recently dug up and put back to put the electricity cable across here. I haven't been bogged yet this time (happened early on, before we moved in), but we're being very cautious. At least, if it happens, we don't have far to walk home!

The garden is certainly enjoying it. I swear the peas have grown about 3 inches since it started, and they're all flowering like mad. Everything is greening up, and I think all the rooster booster I threw around last week was put down just in time. The rain is dissolving it all, and sending it into the ground.

Water tank

Here's a pic of our water tank, just for Gale.

Rain, Rain, Glorious Rain!

Enjoying the rain.

It started late last night, or perhaps it was the early hours of the morning, I'm not sure, because I was curled up in bed, just listening to the sound of it drumming on the roof. There is nothing quite like the sound of rain on a tin (or in the case, colourbond) roof. All the insulation and layers in a normal roof mutes the sound, and leaves you feeling like the rain is distant, not affecting you. I grew up with tin roofs, and the sound of the rain on the roof always made you feel snug, and glad you had somewhere out of the rain. I didn't realise how much I had missed the sound until we moved here.

Of course, it has it's downsides too. Making a phone call is just about impossible in a heavy downpour, and talking to the person next to you means raising your voice. And of course, I have a 3yo, who thinks that right now, in the midst of all that noise, is the perfect time to read a story together! I'm going to miss it once our house is built though.

Our tank is almost full, and we've put a (clean) garbage bin under the overflow, because if it rains more tonight, we'll have water everywhere, and I don't want it to flood the pump. We've actually been using the water tonight. I ran DD a bath about 4 inches deep instead of her usual 2 or so, and we'll all probably have extra long showers in the morning. After living with this drought and water restrictions for over a year now, it feels gloriously rich to have a full tank of water.

I picked out our tank very carefully, after looking around at all the info I could find. I decided against a poly tank, as some studies have shown that over long periods of time, the poly tanks can leach into the water, especially if they're in the sun. Most of the corrugated iron tanks were lined with poly anyway (and this was listed as a selling point!), and concrete was far too much hassle, so I decided on a Stainless Steel. It's 23,000 litres (5400 gallons I think), and we're hoping that that will supply our household needs, without having to resort to the mains backup. As we seem to have a pretty good rainfall (this season anyway), hopefully we'll be right.

I was as picky about our pump as I was about the tank. Most of the systems supplied to hook up to the laundry/toilet work on a floating ball method, where the ball opens a valve to the mains system when it detects the water has fallen below a certain level, and tops up your tank from the mains supply. I didn't want this, as I have an aversion to chlorine, and wanted to avoid it ever going into our tank. So I opted for an Onga Watersaver, which is a little (or rather, a lot) more expensive, but with operates on a valve method, switching between tank or mains water, without the two ever mixing in your tank. It has the added advantage that if there is a blackout, it will automatically switch to mains, meaning we will still have water even if the pump isn't working.

With all that, I also needed a super filter system, both to be sure we didn't have any ickys in our tank water, we're close enough to the city that I am concerned about pollution particles, not to mention being under a tree, so lots of dirty leaves etc, and to filter the chlorine from the mains supply when we needed to use it. My dad organised it for me, and all our water passes through a 5 micron sediment filter, then a 0.5 micron carbon block filter. Our water pressure is great, and we can all be assured that it is of the highest standard possible.

All of our drinking water is stored in the fridge in glass bottles, mostly recycled fruit juice bottles. I have a few large ones for water at home, and a few smaller ones to grab on the run. A couple have been broken recently though, so I'll have to replace them.

Another benefit of the filtered rainwater is that my acne, that I've had since I first moved to the city over 10 years ago, has cleared up. I'm now convinced that it had nothing to do with hormones at all, but is a direct result of the chlorine (or something else) in the mains water. Scary stuff!