Tuesday, February 21, 2012

To great heights?

So it turns out that the spots I had in mind for the water storage tank aren't quite as high up as I thought. The first is only 20' up from the farmhouse and the second is only 30' up, nowhere near the 100' I was hoping for. Having the tank up 100' would provide enough gravity-fed pressure for basically anything we want to do. There are higher elevation parts of our land but they present at least a moderate access challenge due to the forest overgrowth. On our next trip we'll do a bit of bushwhacking to see if we can find a suitable site.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Current State of the Water System

[Update: A tree fell on the "janky overhead power line"!]

So here's our current water system. It leaves a lot of things to be desired but I wanted to document the state we found it in before creating something new.

Downsides to this system:
  • Clean (tested) spring water mixes with creek water
  • No long-term storage, pressure tanks are just that, not for storage
  • Pump relies on sketchy power system and PG&E
  • Nearly every part of the system is old and in need of attention/replacement
I've been reading a great book on water systems called  "Water Storage" that has fueled quite a lot of ideas about how we can do this better. I haven't drawn up the system I'd like to build yet but I think I have a good idea what it might be like.

Qualities I'd like to see in our new system:
  • Keeps clean spring water isolated to maintain quality
  • Use gravity to pressurize water (we have a tall slope behind the house)
  • Use solar energy to power all pumps involved
  • Long-term storage, 5,000 gallons maybe?
  • Use of sand/natural filters as a prefilter for drinking water
  • Online before the end of summer 2012
I'd love for the new water storage container to be made with ferrocement like the reccomend in the book but it seems a bit much to chew off right now so it seems like the tank will likely be some sort of non-leaching plastic as a compromise.

Up next? Drawings of the dream water system :)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Beautiful February spring day?

We were blessed with a second nice day this weekend and were able to get a lot more work done. Today was just a family day and Nicole and the kids and I had a great time. At one point were were hauling kids in the wheelbarrows over to the wood pile and returning with wood while the kids ran back to the garden. :)

The kids also helped clean out what they're calling the "chicken shack", a small room attached to the barn which may have indeed been used to house chickens at one point. While they swept and rearrange in the "shack" I hacked a defendable clear space between the barn and the invading blackberry horde. Machetes are fun

Nicole and I started and finished our 3rd hugelkultur bed today all by ourselves. First we dig out the perimeter, then dig out the insides, all down 1 full shovel depth...
Then we fill it with wood, most of this was very old rotten firewood.
After this we layer other mulch materials and then...
Cover it all back up again! Hooray our 3rd garden bed is done! (Joel came by to say hi)
Anubis is loving our farm days. Lots of freedom, sun and dirt to roll in!
Behind the barn we found a collection of old 1 gallon glass jugs. Cheap wine? Apple cider? We may never know.
In the barn we found a great flatbed wagon but it needs new tubes. 4.10/3.50-4 looks like :)
Tenzin and his trucks :)





Saturday, February 11, 2012

Spring news, winter day?

Today was a beautiful day on the farm! With some extra hands large and small we finished off our second Hugelkultur bed. With another set of tall hands around we were able to get the large cottonwood branch off the backside of the barn roof too.
Kevin slinging soil to cover the wood and brush in the base of the bed.
The boys ran the heavy machinery for us again.

 
     
Today's garden bed building team sans two little ones asleep in the car



I uncovered a small clue about the water system...
A junction box of sorts, water pipe coming out of the cement and feeding a PVC pipe pointed at the spring house.
The open T joint on the right seems to indicate that maybe this is unused/abandoned.








Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Old stuff

I found this old beer can last weekend just sitting on a pile of rocks like it had been set down yesterday. Clearly it's a bit older than that. Lots of things on the farm are old like this :)

Friday, February 3, 2012

Seed CSA!

Now that pay day has come,  I signed us up for Sierra Seeds "Seed CSA" for the next year.  I'm quite excited about it since the seeds come from local farms near us:
"4 seasonal seed installments ( every other month pickup) with a collection of tomato / pepper / eggplant / flower plant starts, grown from Sierra Seeds.   Plant / Seed Share members will not recieve the first installment of seeds ( which are warm season seeds meant to be planted indoors in flats), instead recieving starts in May, when weather is stable enough to plant outside."

Awesome!