The Breakroom > The Water Cooler
Another Workshop Time Waster: 3000 Gallon Masonry Cistern
vtsteam:
Photos links broken by PhotoBucket now redirected.
howsitwork?:
Hi Steve
Hope the bears just pose for photos for you. We spent a week I. Alaska last august and eventually saw two black bears on the Canadian border eating roots and having a play fight before wondering off. Beautiful to watch but very powerful. Glad we were inside a tour bus at the time. One lady wanted to get out for a better photo🤔🤔
She was persuaded this was not a good idea just before they decided to exchange a few playful blows....
Beautiful country and great people ( on both sides of the border ).
By now no doubt your enjoying the bountiful water supplies.
Ian
vtsteam:
Just an update on the masonry cistern, it has been needed only once during the last few years -- for about two weeks the summer before last. It's a reserve water source in case of drought, and was sized to allow 50 gallons a day of usage for two months. Before I built it we had experienced two months of drought using containers for water and had reduced our water needs to 5 gallons/day. So 50 gallons/day is easily achievable.
Well, as of today we are again drawing water from the cistern. Drought conditions are back here in Vermont. This did not happen prior to 2010. Now it seems to happen every 2-3 years. Here's a photo of our stream from the bridge we built. Practically dry, except for a few wet spots. Fish dying.
awemawson:
Good forward planning then Steve :thumbup:
Anticipate what might go wrong and put a ‘Suitable Spare’ on the shelf, or in your case, in the garden!
vtsteam:
Thanks Andrew. :beer:
Ironic thing is, we're approaching the possibility of flash floods as we move into Fall. This would mainly be due to the remainders of hurricanes down in the southern U.S. If a hurricane strikes the east coast, it generally becomes a tropical storm and moves north. By the time it hits us it is usually swirling rain bands. Hurricane Irene hit us a few years ago and devastated our roadways and bridges and isolated whole towns. Some have still not completely rebuilt.
This is supposed to be an unusually active Atlantic hurricane season, so we'll see what happens. Might be a real test of the bridge, which was designed to handle a 100 year flood. Heh, both cistern and bridge finding essential use in a single season. Should be interesting!
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