My attempt to make it to my 10 acres in Terlingua Ranch and make a go of living on it. From the start it hasn't gone good at all, but I'm hopeful things will turn around!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Water Water Everywhere, but not in my tank.

Got another .3 inches of rain last night along with a really nasty electrical storm. Lightning was hitting all around here and some sounded REALLY close. The inverter cut out twice when close lightning hit and I sure didn't know it would do that unless maybe it was a direct hit. Both times the inverter reset its self and the power came back on with in a few seconds. At least this time there was no high wind or hail.

I should have gotten about 60 gallons out of that .3 inches, but I doubt I got much at all because of the below.

The black stuff in there is gnats that have made their way in to the opening going in to the tank and with the very small screen filter had more or less completely covered the screen. I need to come up with a better filtration setup, but for now I have this cleaned out so hopefully when I get more rain I'll actually get water out of it.

I know the thought of this is probably gross to some, but that fine screen does at least keep the water inside pretty clean. Of course some people actually drink their rain catchment, but I don't. I add bleach to it occasionally, but just use that water for showers, washing dishes, flushing the toilet and stuff like that. I buy my drinking water separate from hauled or catchment water. I have heard of people finding lizards, mice and lots of bugs floating around in their tanks. I'll just have to keep the screen clean!

14 comments:

DD, at one time did use a filter along with the bleach in the water and I'd drink it then, but its too easy to keep drinking water to bother with filtering it. I figure a little bird shit that washes off the roof in to the tank won't kill me showering in it. Especially since its bleached. LOL

Tffnguy----- We also use screen wire (aluminum) - in our gutter downspout - but extend the screen wire upward to greatly increase the surface area of the screens. We do this by rolling the screen wire into a conical shape - with a closed top. Then we force the small end of the cone shaped screen filter into gutter downspout. Most of the filtering of debris takes place above the bottom of the gutter. This works great for us - and seldom needs cleaning. I have a photo of this - but do not know how to attach it to this post.

Excellent idea with the screen, but in Canada we turn the pointed side of the cone shape up and jam the bigger round part, down into the downspout at the eavestrough (gutter). That way the leaves and bugs get washed off the cone and requires less maintainence and cleaning as the screen gets washed every time it rains hard. Also tffnguy, found a excellent website for tips on battery selection and maintainence that I'd like to share with everyone... http://www.trojanbattery.com/multimedia/#TrojanTips

Al, I bookmarked the site and will check it out when I have time. 9 Points, Black Hill and Red Bluff got hammered last night and it sure looked like it was going to make it here. About the time it would have been here it turned in to a sprinkle and then quit all together.

Well, sure glad i got my catchment system set up when I did. I may have water after all! Heard of some water thieving down there!!! Hard to believe! A water thief in the desert, is worse than a horse thief in the old west! They deserve to be hung!! ....But that won't happen at my property :-) I'll shoot to kill, no trees big enough for a hanging, but lots of land for burials! ;-)