Hey Q.

[Ishmael]

You asked about the barrels in the backyard. Here's how they work.

[URL=http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/Ishmael13/media/001-1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee483/Ishmael13/001-1.jpg[/URL][/IMG]

The rig you see is to fill the barrels. At the end of that pipe in the irrigation ditch is a 50 gpm sump pump. Takes just over a minute to fill one barrel. Next week when the ditch doesn't run I'll empty the barrels into the garden.

Ishmael

 

[Ishmael]

As for the rest of the yard, I have a pipe manifold system that connects into the ditch. And there are 5 valves on the manifold. 3 open into the backyard, one to a group of fruit trees that you can't see in the pic., and the last waters the privacy hedge at the front of the house.

The backyard has a 4" berm around it so I just open the valves and flood the yard like so. I only have to do a small amount of supplemental watering in the dry months. No that the monsoons are about to hit I won't have to water at all.

[URL=http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/Ishmael13/media/003-1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee483/Ishmael13/003-1.jpg[/URL][/IMG]

Someone asked about that swing set. It's a legacy item. The house I'm in used to be owned by a family of 10!!!!!!! It's a 2 bedroom and is actually larger than I need, but I can't imagine 10 people living in this place without a homicide having occurred.

Ishmael

 

[nowisthetime]

Nobody cares about your homelife.

 

[thør]

I have two barrels like those in my greenhouse. I should have 4. They're there just to add thermal mass and moderate temperatures. SWMBO think's it's hocus pocus, but so far, this is the best greenhouse season we've had (and barrels went in at the same time the plants did). I will drain them this fall.

 

[Ishmael]

I have two barrels like those in my greenhouse. I should have 4. They're there just to add thermal mass and moderate temperatures. SWMBO think's it's hocus pocus, but so far, this is the best greenhouse season we've had (and barrels went in at the same time the plants did). I will drain them this fall.

*chuckle* That's an old plasterers trick as well. If they were working in the early spring or late fall and a frost was expected they bring in a bunch of 55 gal drums and fill them with water to keep the wet plaster from freezing.

Stick with the hocus pocus line.

Ishmael

 

[Skiddles2014]

You should start a trailer park thread.

 

[Queersetti]

Thanks for the explanation. It makes me think how lucky I am to live where we don't have to use so much ingenuity for something as basic as water.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Wonder if Ishmael got a patent on his "above ground septic tanks"?

 

[Ishmael]

Thanks for the explanation. It makes me think how lucky I am to live where we don't have to use so much ingenuity for something as basic as water.

Yeah, generally speaking if you're west of the Mississippi you've got a water issue.

Ishmael

 

[thør]

Yeah, generally speaking if you're west of the Mississippi you've got a water issue.

Ishmael

If I were to spend more time at the cabin, I'd build a ram-pump to supply creek water to the place. Otherwise, we just fill the jugs at home, from the well.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Yeah, generally speaking if you're west of the Mississippi you've got a water issue.

Ishmael

I'm West of the Mississippi by about a quarter of a mile and I have a water problem.

It rains so hard and so often that it stops draining away...

 

[yossi]

There was a rain barrel class at one of the library branches recently that I wanted to attend, but I couldn't make it work with my schedule, unfortunately. Very cool setup, Ish.

 

[Ishmael]

There was a rain barrel class at one of the library branches recently that I wanted to attend, but I couldn't make it work with my schedule, unfortunately. Very cool setup, Ish.

Thanks Yos.

I wanted to do a water wheel driving a pump and a manifold with float valves in the barrels and have the whole thing run automatically, but the conservancy frowns on permanent structure on the ditches.

Ishmael