Jessica, this might comfort you. In many ways you're better off and at a realer scale as a suburban yard homesteader than are those of us with more acreage. Yes, we can plant perennial food savannah and hope it comes to bear before the roof falls in, which is a joy, but there is no way we could manage my 28 acres with 5 of us, counting our old and our young, who mostly spend their days together while we other 3 do farm work - we couldn't do this many acres without gasoline and diesel fuel. We could keep up with 6 to 10 with donkeys, but to do 10 we'd need at least one more working animal. Plus my day manager has her own farm. We use a skid loader and 3 tractors, plus 2 diesel trucks and various trailers, to manage this 68 acres at 2 locations 5 miles apart.
When the gas stations run dry we'll have to make major changes in management.
Jessica, you keep up a rapid pace of trying things and telling us about them. I would be exhausted! Thomas Edison tried about 100 materials for light bulb filaments before he found one that stayed lit for 24 hours. Henry Ford went through the letters of the alphabet, (original) Model A, through Model S, before it all came together in the Model T. I'm sure they valued every "failure" along the way.
It's all so much harder than they tell you. And not every system works perfectly first time, or even ever. My partner is a tinkerer. Our toilet currently flushes on rain water. Sometimes. We have a vast rainwater catchment system (7000 litres of IBCs with plans to go bigger) but not all of them are plumbed in. And what's definitely not included in the system yet is a pump to pump all the water we have into the header tank that feeds to toilet (we live on a hill).
So we're dealing with grid systems that don't work perfectly because he's buggered about with them. I'm not getting at him. The reason they don't work properly is because he has to work. Yes, even with a fully paid off house, it turns out we still need money. I'm in charge of the food systems around here. I just had birds eat a fuck ton of raspberries because I was too busy to pick them because I home ed and work and have writing aspirations and it was hot.
We have two in case of emergency water systems. One is the stored rainwater we already in our system plus a British Berkefeld water filter. The other is a specific IBC under the house for tap water. Its not full 🤦♀️ We haven't got around to it yet. I guess its a half way house anyway as it would run out relatively quickly but might give us a few weeks grace.
No need to reinvent the wheel, I would look into a well. I drilled my own using tips I got from this site: https://drillyourownwell.com/
My well doesn't flow anything like the ones in the profiles on that site - only about 1/2 gpm, but that still yields 800 gal/day! The water I get is crystal clear, it does have a lot of minerals and some salt, but quite safe to drink and most plants thrive on it.
Really impressed with the scope of your experimentation Jessica!
Also very interested in your eventual findings with dehumidifiers. I’m sure that not all designs are producing potable (or near potable) water, but I know from experience that they do generate significant amounts depending on atmospheric conditions.
Keep up the great work, and don’t let the slop mongers get to you! 🫡
I was was working on a list of things that were important that I've learned after 20 years ofvpreparedness, but substack ate it. I'm not typing it all over again.
Jessica, this might comfort you. In many ways you're better off and at a realer scale as a suburban yard homesteader than are those of us with more acreage. Yes, we can plant perennial food savannah and hope it comes to bear before the roof falls in, which is a joy, but there is no way we could manage my 28 acres with 5 of us, counting our old and our young, who mostly spend their days together while we other 3 do farm work - we couldn't do this many acres without gasoline and diesel fuel. We could keep up with 6 to 10 with donkeys, but to do 10 we'd need at least one more working animal. Plus my day manager has her own farm. We use a skid loader and 3 tractors, plus 2 diesel trucks and various trailers, to manage this 68 acres at 2 locations 5 miles apart.
When the gas stations run dry we'll have to make major changes in management.
You're in an excellent position.
Jessica, you keep up a rapid pace of trying things and telling us about them. I would be exhausted! Thomas Edison tried about 100 materials for light bulb filaments before he found one that stayed lit for 24 hours. Henry Ford went through the letters of the alphabet, (original) Model A, through Model S, before it all came together in the Model T. I'm sure they valued every "failure" along the way.
I appreciate your help on this! I think it's important to acknowledge all the hard limits we run up against sometimes.
Water and food. And seeds. Loving my current crop of snowpeas!
Thank god I'll be dead by then. And my kids are smarter than I am. I couldn't do a tenth of what you laid out!
It's a work in progress!
Thank you for all the reality you serve up. And the knowledge sharing.
It's all so much harder than they tell you. And not every system works perfectly first time, or even ever. My partner is a tinkerer. Our toilet currently flushes on rain water. Sometimes. We have a vast rainwater catchment system (7000 litres of IBCs with plans to go bigger) but not all of them are plumbed in. And what's definitely not included in the system yet is a pump to pump all the water we have into the header tank that feeds to toilet (we live on a hill).
So we're dealing with grid systems that don't work perfectly because he's buggered about with them. I'm not getting at him. The reason they don't work properly is because he has to work. Yes, even with a fully paid off house, it turns out we still need money. I'm in charge of the food systems around here. I just had birds eat a fuck ton of raspberries because I was too busy to pick them because I home ed and work and have writing aspirations and it was hot.
We have two in case of emergency water systems. One is the stored rainwater we already in our system plus a British Berkefeld water filter. The other is a specific IBC under the house for tap water. Its not full 🤦♀️ We haven't got around to it yet. I guess its a half way house anyway as it would run out relatively quickly but might give us a few weeks grace.
I've been reading about sand filters (https://sswm.info/sites/default/files/reference_attachments/THAMES%20WATER%20and%20UNIVERSITY%20OF%20SURREY%202005%20Slow%20Sand%20Filters.pdf) but I have no idea what quality of water they actually produce.
No need to reinvent the wheel, I would look into a well. I drilled my own using tips I got from this site: https://drillyourownwell.com/
My well doesn't flow anything like the ones in the profiles on that site - only about 1/2 gpm, but that still yields 800 gal/day! The water I get is crystal clear, it does have a lot of minerals and some salt, but quite safe to drink and most plants thrive on it.
Really impressed with the scope of your experimentation Jessica!
Also very interested in your eventual findings with dehumidifiers. I’m sure that not all designs are producing potable (or near potable) water, but I know from experience that they do generate significant amounts depending on atmospheric conditions.
Keep up the great work, and don’t let the slop mongers get to you! 🫡
I was was working on a list of things that were important that I've learned after 20 years ofvpreparedness, but substack ate it. I'm not typing it all over again.
$2000 for an atmospheric water machine is prohibitive for me. Any cheaper ones out there?