Water Storage

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Yep...we want to use drip. It is having the accessible water that has prevented us from investing the money in it so far. Nothing to hook the "drip line" up too. I want to move one of the IBC totes to the back 40 for summer....no way to fill it but to pump. But, it will have to supply the drip line, as a gravity feed. We filter the rain water now, so plugging lines shouldn't be an issue. Just water availability is.

Getting everything set up and going is a slow process.

 

[ORChick]

Moxies_chickennuggets - I don't know what your normal rainfall is where you live, but it rather sounds as though you are in a similar situation to where we were in California. It rains there between October and April, and not at all otherwise. Where we were normal yearly rainfall was approx. 13". This is normal for that place. For about half of the 20 years we lived in that house there was a drought, and water restrictions. We also had numerous trash cans set up to catch water, and we also put in drip irrigation. And *selective flushing* (good term! I like it!) We lived on a suburban lot, but I did have a big-ish garden. (Plus side to all that? You never have to wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow )
I have a book about growing and using herbs, and the author obviously lives in the East, probably New England. Her recommendation for planting was to *water it in well, and then let Nature do the watering*! I always laugh, and groan at that. Both in California, and here in Oregon in the summer, that is a guaranteed method of killing the wee plant before it has a chance to get started. Summer means irrigation of some sort; that is just the way it is.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

I totaled up the rainfall amounts on our property ..for 2011. We had 40.36". Now, upon research, the "average rainfall" for Midlands SC is 48-53". Everything is so different now, climate wise. According to SC DNR sites, we here are in a "moderate drought"...and must practice conservation tactics. We do anyway.

"Water in and then let nature take over"....Well, we tried that last summer. Some of our mistakes were being late in planting some things, planting them in un-favorable locations, companion planting non compatible plants, not planting high water use veggies in appropriate locations. So, we were lucky to get anything...really.
That was what SO wanted to do too...as it worked at his last place. But, he was over by GA then, and they got bunches of rain there. Here...not so much.

 

[hqueen13]

Curious question here.... Can you use the Vinegar bottles for water storage? Someone suggested using bleach bottles, but I don't really use much bleach to collect bottles. The vinegar bottles are thicker plastic than milk jugs, and the ones I get are 1 1/2 gallons. Would the leftover vinegar be an issue or a help?

 

[snapshot]

Good question!!!!!

 

[Dawn419]

I've been saving and reusing vinegar bottles for our potable and rain water, with no problem.

The oldest one I'm using for our drinking/cooking water is going on two years old. The ones that I use for rainwater and stay outside don't last quite as long due to heat/cold extremes, but still last way longer than milk jugs.