| The Breakroom > The Water Cooler |
| How to Solve Drought |
| (1/8) > >> |
| vtsteam:
As mentioned in the Bernardston thread, this spring has been practically rain free and caused a very unusual drought this time of year. The garden is powder and the lawn turned brown. This causes great trepidation for us, particularly this early, as we get our water from a cold spring flowing out of a hole in rock ledge that feeds a 200 gallon cistern under the house. It flows through continuously summer and winter, except during severe drought. While it produces immense gallonage over the year, we can (and have) run out of water. We ran dry for nearly 2 months about 5 years ago when it didn't rain locally for the entire second half of summer -- a very rare event here. In fact, even areas 50 miles away got reasonable amounts of rain, according to closely watched weather maps, but the storms always dissipated or split round our corner of southern Vermont that year. It was very frustrating. Here's what the front lawn looks like. It was all green grass a few weeks ago. After much discussion at home, we decided to start construction of a separate above ground 3000 gallon summer/drought cistern. That plan had been "in the works" for years. But it tends to lose urgency when water is plentiful! |
| vtsteam:
So I worked most of the morning yesterday getting a few details sorted on the old Ford 850 tractor with backhoe. That's still an uncompleted project -- no engine covering sheet metal, and a small temporary gas tank, but usable for scraping out a 10 foot flat spot on our hill as a base for the new cistern. I needed to charge the battery, add fresh gas, top up tires, and make a new link for one of the hydraulic valve levers. Then navigate through some tricky passages to draw to a chosen spot, near the house, but below it by about 8 feet, so we could use gravity feed from the house to the new cistern to receive overflow from the house cistern. For some reason I couldn't quite back it to my chosen spot -- short by a dozen feet, when the rear tires began to slip. There are some half buried logs here left by a former logging company land owner, and the Ford refused to climb them. The ground was a bit soft, but I attributed that to our cistern overflow hose which emptied nearby, though the merest trickle now. No problem, I'll just use the hoe to move me closer, and pull my way over the uneven ground! :smart: |
| Arbalist:
Have you thought of "Grey water" harvesting? Water used for Bathing and washing clothes goes straight down the drain here but could easily go to a settlement tank for reuse in the garden. The only water not ideal for this is from the Dish Washer but they don't use much these days anyway. |
| vtsteam:
Being new to this ancient backhoe combo, I managed to dig a couple buckets full before getting the coordinated moves in the direction I wanted to go. I did kinda notice the ground looked moist where I'd put holes, but again, probably very localized from the overflow hose. I got myself in better position, turned around and noticed a little mud around the front tire. Hmmmm, this really is still pretty damp in this spot. Kinda lush foliage, too.... Seems the plants here are doing well -- and for quite a distance around, too. Must be the overflow...... Ready to dig, but the tractor engine died righ then. Murphy's law. Out of fuel in that small tank. And actually I'd emptied my fuel can into it to get the tractor here in the first place, so I needed to drive all the way to town to fill all the gas cans -- a half hour operation, minimum. It had been a hot sunny day in the 80's but I noticed it was getting kinda gray and even dark towards the south. I hopped off the tractor and landed in squishy ground. I looked at a bucket hole I'd dug. Was that water in the bottom? A little bit. Well off to town. Drfiving down the mountain. It's getting darker. And darker. And the wind is picking up. Trees are bending along the road side. Oh yeah, sure, I'm thinking, it did this plenty of times during the last drought. Threatened to rain and never did. I fill up the gas cans. Tie them into the truck and head back home. About half way there it begins to rain. Bet it just rains in his spot for ten minutes. Another trick, last drought. I'd drive through a thunderstorm only to find the road dry 500 yards from the house. But it was raining when I got home this time. I waited in the truck for a few minutes to let it stop, but it only slowed, so I grabbed an old umbrella I keep aboard, and started to carry a gas can back toward the house -- it's a 600 foot hike across my bridge on Broad brook, along a field and then up through woods. I just got off the bridge when lightning hit a thousand yards away, which caused me to ponder whether holding a pointed metal object up in the air with one hand and 5 gallons of gasoline in the other hand while crossing a field was a good idea! |
| vtsteam:
Since it was raining and late in the day, there was no point in continuing digging operations. So I went home and had dinner. Now, it rained last night, yes, and continued, true, more at times and less at others, but I don't think that actually full accounted for what I found when I checked the tractor this morning. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |