Harvesting rainwater

[ChanellG]

We've had a few issues with our tap water recently. First there was hurricane Katrina. Then, in the last couple years the processing plant has lost pressure more than once, and we've been under a boil order. By the time we find out hours have usually passed (think teeth being brushed with water that is not potable!) so I am sticking to bottled.

 

[Jed]

Boy I must be so lucky. They even bottle rainwater for sale on the west coast of the island. Check out this link.
http://capegrim.com.au/distribution.php


I no longer drink our rainwater as I have available creek water to drink. We have no need to treat it and it's the sweetest water ever.

 

[ChanellG]

You are lucky! That is amazing; there must be almost no pollution where you are. I can't imagine drinking rainwater let alone creek water.

 

[Jed]

You are lucky! That is amazing; there must be almost no pollution where you are. I can't imagine drinking rainwater let alone creek water.

I honestly didn't know until today that people didn't drink rainwater. That must be down right awful. I had heard though in the US you can't drink creekwater because of disease. That must be such a drag.
All my neigbours here drink creek water and another who doesn't has 2 of 20,000 litre tank to catch their rainwater.

 

[dhrynio]

You have to be very careful in some areas when drinking creek water. There have been many cases where I come from of Giardia infection. A good friend from Oregon got it while in Michigan while canoeing with a group. He ingested the water after tipping over and within a week got really sick. He lost 20 pounds in a month. Damn parasites.

 

[ChanellG]

Parasites are why you hear "don't drink the water" when talking about Mexico. I was in Cancun once, and I was careful about what I ate and didn't drink the water, but somehow I still got the effect.

 

[claudine]

Once, when we were in the mountains, my uncle decided to drink water from the creek - he said it's the cleanest and safest water in the entire world. So he tried it and we climbed up a little and we found...a dead frog in the same creek .. From that day I prefer to be extra cautious when it comes to what I drink. I don't know what would I do if I found out that I've just drunk water filtered through dead frog

 

[ChanellG]

ROFLOL! Sorry, Claudine, you have to admit that is really funny! I wouldn't want to drink frog water either and there are tiny organisms in the water you can't see, not to mention the coliform. You just never now what you're getting out in the wild.

 

[zigs]

What's a water butt?

Thats English for Rainwater Barrel, usually filled by the downpipe from the guttering

 

[zigs]

Once, when we were in the mountains, my uncle decided to drink water from the creek - he said it's the cleanest and safest water in the entire world. So he tried it and we climbed up a little and we found...a dead frog in the same creek .. From that day I prefer to be extra cautious when it comes to what I drink. I don't know what would I do if I found out that I've just drunk water filtered through dead frog

Fuelled by a bottle of wine at lunchtime, I decided to climb a mountain in the Italian Alps, bit of a thirsty 3 hour climb, so I was drinking from the crystal clear stream on the way up.

When I got near the top, it flattened out into a field full of Bruni Alpini Cows, the muddy patch in which they were standing & doing what Cows do, was the source of the stream

 

[claudine]

ROFLOL! Sorry, Claudine, you have to admit that is really funny! I wouldn't want to drink frog water either and there are tiny organisms in the water you can't see, not to mention the coliform. You just never now what you're getting out in the wild.

I know it's funny, I laughed too . Only my poor uncle was unable to laugh . Fortunately, he is still very healthy

Fuelled by a bottle of wine at lunchtime, I decided to climb a mountain in the Italian Alps, bit of a thirsty 3 hour climb, so I was drinking from the crystal clear stream on the way up.

When I got near the top, it flattened out into a field full of Bruni Alpini Cows, the muddy patch in which they were standing & doing what Cows do, was the source of the stream

Oh my...it's definitely a traumatic experience. Maybe worse than my uncle's dead frog I'm sure it was awful

 

[ChanellG]

Thats English for Rainwater Barrel, usually filled by the downpipe from the guttering

Thanks for clearing that up, lol. I was thinking maybe it was a type of cistern or something. Oh, and OMG with regard to the cows and the stream. I'd have been instantly ill on the spot just from the psychology of it!

I went out to empty the bin this morning and found I'd collected a little over a gallon of rainwater. I now have two jugs capped, plus a little extra. It won't rain again for a few days so I'll be using up at least half of that new gallon right away.

 

[dziomek]

I have three barrels for collecting rainwater, and that is still not enough. Friends have a big holding tank which their eavestroughs drain into, so they do not have the issue of mosquitoes in standing water. We are currently renting our home, but when we buy a place I will definitely be incorporating a similar system to collect rain water.

The system our friends have also has a valve at the top and bottom - top to bypass (especially when winter is coming) and the bottom to fill watering cans and buckets. They do not have a garden close by so their water is used mainly for hanging baskets and planters placed around the yard (and they have a lot). My planned system will have soaker hoses running from the holding tank to the garden beds.

 

[zigs]

Thanks for clearing that up, lol. I was thinking maybe it was a type of cistern or something. Oh, and OMG with regard to the cows and the stream. I'd have been instantly ill on the spot just from the psychology of it

No worries, we are two nations divided by a common language

Didn't get ill from the stream, the uv at high altitude sterilises the water. The dead pigeon in my water tank in the attic was a different matter though

 

[ChanellG]

Zigs, you certainly have your share of adventures, lol.

@Dziomek, we currently don't have rain gutters so the downspout idea won't work for me. I'm not too keen on collecting water off the roof anyway because of the tar paper. I'd be concerned about leaching -- I have mostly food plants right now.

My plan is to use something like this:

I would invert the lid so that the water would collect in the top and run down into the "barrel". I could always just take the lid off when it was raining and cover it when it wasn't.