Top 7 Mistakes to Avoid when Harvesting Rain Water
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ค. 2024
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Harvesting rain water doesn't have to be expensive or difficult. You can make rain barrels, create hot tub ponds, buy a cistern or dig a pond or a swale. There are some mistakes I made when harvesting rainwater on my old homestead, though, and I don't want you to struggle with the same issues. Since www.ThePrepperProject.com had me write an article on harvesting rain water, I decided to create a video on the topic as well. Get rid of mosquitoes in ponds, get rid of algae, learn to harvest rainwater on the cheap and find out how much rainwater a roof can collect - thanks for watching and enjoy!
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Cool rap! 😎 haha
Heck yeah!! Our man David has got the skills! 😎🌎✨
Get you some lavender oil, dilute it with filtered water, spray it on yourself, keeps the mosquitoes away. Also all water coming off a roof is not for human consumption, the shingles are toxic. Metal roof type may be ok, I don't know, I have shingles. thanks, tc
You forgot an important point. We have many species of birds here, I saw a bird drinking out of our roofs evestrough. There is lots of >>"bird droppings (poop or sh¡t)"
One of the most important you forgot to mention. Don't let government, or municipal officials know you're harvesting it,because believe it or not, they've outlawed it in many places.
Short summary: 1.Don't make it expensive (no need) 2. Watch out for mosquitoes, 3. Make a big outflow from your tanks 4. Make tank as big as possible 5. Use swales on slopes, 6. Protect from algae - cover from light 7. Don't be lazy and save water!
Much appreciated summary.
Thanks a lot ahhaaha
Or, listen to creative short summary @10:00!
I haven't watched the video, but I thought sure that moustache would be number one.
8. Translate into square metres/litres and other units the rest of the world uses
I only use organic cage free rainwater.
Then you stick it in a plastic cage and make it work for you. Shame.
lol
#crueltyfree
I hand picked the dropplets to make sure i get the best quality water
Cage free? Have you gone nuts? It's water dude!
FYI for people who have never used Mosquito Dunks before: after a few days, they disintegrate into zillions of little particles that float all over the surface of your container. They're still working to suppress the mosquitoes, but looks messy. What I suggest is to buy some aquarium fine-mesh filter bags (that are used for holding biological filter media). You can put a couple of Mosquito Dunks per bag. I also suggest that you tie the bagged Dunks to a heavy object so you can sink them into your container. I've found that raccoons think the bags are puzzles to shred.
Good idea - thank you.
Now the raccoons are bored and have no puzzles to shred…
Will that water with dunks toxic to our plants that we are going to be eating
@@Peonyprashanti No
@@artstamper316 do you know, are the dunks harmful to good bugs in you garden?
Around 4:20min. Just add a check valve on the top of the barrel. It lets air in as you drain the water out. Many people forget. By doing that water will gush out and will have pressure too. Great video
Yes, anyone who has ever used a tea kettle understands about a compensating air hole but they just don't pay attention! Good call
I have noticed a MASSIVE difference in my plants when they are watered with rain water vs chemical laden tap water. Every time it rains my fruit trees come to live!!
Yup i was just thinking of that tonight... and I have to use tap water almost exclusively for now :(
@@spaceedementia - Look up Eric Dubay about gravity and the shape of the earth.
th-cam.com/video/OQCXT2pkans/w-d-xo.html
That’s because it’s treated with chlorine etc . Put your tap water into barrels and after a few days ( depending on time of year / sun / heat ) that chlorine will form a gas and disperse from the water and will be much better for your plants . Water direct from a tap is basically stunting the growth to a plant
@@sgoredraw1455 - That sounds like a good idea. 👍
@@spaceedementia Agriculture is destroying the planet. It is very frustrating how much miss information there is on this topic. Grazing can actually sequester far more carbon than forests at a much, much faster rate. If we grazed animals on a large enough scale, we could actually mitigate all human emissions. Growing plants can not do this. Plant agriculture uses massive amounts of fossil fuels and unlike grazing cattle, it doesn't mitigate its own emissions. The soil microbiome is killed with chemicals and that dead soil is lost rapidly, causing complete land infertility and desertification. Grazing animals is the fastest way to replenish these lands, bring the microbes back, give nutrients back, rehydrate, break up impaction, and build soil faster than any other process. It would take nature decades to build the amount of soil made in a couple of yrs of Grazing.
Rainwater collecting is definitely a local thing. Part of my youth was spent growing up on the islands of Bermuda. Almost without exception, all houses there collect rainwater. They are built atop large cisterns that are connected to the rooftop drainage systems. There is a smaller tank in the attic rafters that provides water pressure to the rest of the house. There is a small float valve (like in a toilet tank) and a small pump that refills that tank as the water level up there drops. When I was there, there was NO central water system. You collected, conserved, and used only what YOU collected. Woe be it to those who used up their family water. They had to call a government truck from the island desalinization plant to come out with a tanker truck and refill their cistern with VERY EXPENSIVE desalinated ocean water.
Unfortunately everybody seems to be saving their water barrels, because just a year or two ago 55 gallon water barrels were easy and cheap to find. Now not so much! Since I moved in to my place in 2002 I placed a set of 6 plastic trash barrels on the drip line of my house to capture water. I invert the lid and pop out the top bung hole to the lid, and place some tulle or gauze window curtain material to act as drainage for the lid catchment to drain into the garbage can. You have to monitor these for when they fill up. They get too full, they run over, wet the ground, and the trashcans topple over from lack of support underneath the base to stay level. Same if the place floods. However I use the barrels to store my pots, all stacked neatly and cleaned out to stash away out of storm winds we get sometimes. This helps stabilize the trash barrels when the are not full.
Dig the rap at the end, David! It's cute! Good advice as well on saving water. You can't catch all the rain, but you can catch what you need for garden and drinking. Swales rule! I need some yet.
@@visnuexe Very interesting. I live on the SC coast where we're prone to tidal flooding ; hurricanes. Trying to think this all through.
Here's a nifty trick. I scored a bunch of 55 gallon all-plastic drums, which were previously used for a food-grade product. I linked them all at the bottom with pipes between and put a teeny tiny vent hole in the top of each one.
All I do is fill one and the water fills the whole gathering of barrels, each to the same level as its neighbors.
One end is where the water goes in and it falls through a series of screens before it actually gets into the barrel, so if mosquitoes want to play in the water, they are out of luck.
At the other end of the barrels, I take screw thingy off the bunghole to gain access and I bought a pump at Home Depot made of pvc, which fits very nicely through the bunghole in the lid of the barrel and all the way to the bottom of it and all I do is pump the water out.
As the water comes out, those teeny tiny vent holes prevent any kind of a vacuum from forming and I have however many barrels of captured rainwater at my disposal, which I use to feed my fruit trees and my container garden.
I want to see it please
@alisapirkey2185
I live in a farming community in North Texas, drop by.
I have since replaced the barrel array with six 275-gallon IBC totes. Those and one other receiver plus my swimming pool, bring my rainwater saving total to right at 2,000 gallons. I filter with a first flush, a string filter, a sand filter and finally a charcoal filter. I make my own hardwood charcoal.
I wanna see this as well
I attended a seminar of rainwater collection and the person mentioned if you paint white the water reservoir is better because the white color reflects the light and reduce the temperature of the water and less bacteria grow. Thanks to teach the people in this interesting things!
We placed a BLACK steel barrel on top of a 8 foot tall tree trunk that had been cut off flat and tied it to it, ran a small water hose from the stream with a tiny pump turned by the stream like an old water wheel. Overflow out of a small hole close to the top on the side had another short piece of water hose that ran back into the creek. In the late afternoon it was a nice warm water shower, as the constant flow of water and the heat kept the algae and mosquitos down. Pop had us dig up a couple of flagstones we laid under the thing for a shower floor, all of it was only 4 feet from the tiny stream. We stayed away from it when it was stormy; Lightning?
You dang sure aren't lying about a rain barrel overflowing within minutes! I remember being all happy when I made first 2 barrels, & I could NOT wait for the next rain....then finally the rain came, & I was outside watching my rain barrels like a proud papa...then after 3 minutes, they were overflowing with lots & lots of rain water....I really had no idea that much water came off my little chicken coop....let alone a house!! Thanks for the video David!!
Seriously! I had one of mine overflow so much it washed out the support and the whole thing fell over.
FOOTERS!
Heh. Yes indeed. An oz of footers is worth a pound of crashing water barrel. Or something like that.
Cog Hill Farm & Homeste
Thanks for the Video clip! Apologies for chiming in, I would appreciate your thoughts. Have you ever tried - Proutklarton Protecting Aqua Plan (do a search on google)? It is a smashing exclusive guide for getting prepared for a mega drought without the hard work. Ive heard some incredible things about it and my mate after many years got amazing results with it.
1:08 Make it expensive
2:10 Let the mosquitoes in
4:05 Choke the Flow
4:56 Go too small
6:24 Miss the Power of swales
7:33 Muck it up with algea
8:31 Don't harvest rain water at all
I loved the video! This is just a little note that might be useful to others and to me when I'll rewatch this video :))
Yeah thanks. I'll be sure to do all those things you listed.
That's totally opposite of what he said!
@@unplannedjourneys4066 You're right but I just wrote the Mistakes to avoid. I didn't write what you should do.
@@valentincameron1240 absolute idiot you should have writen first all the mistakes before writing that
I live in Clarke county, Virginia. At the county government center, they have rainwater barrels on display and for sale. They encourage rain water collection.
That's great.
They even offer tax credits for purchasing rainwater collection hardware
Cool government.
Wow, that’s awesome
That is awesome. It is illegal in some western states. They want the water to go back in the dam.
Haven't had city water for over a decade, and don't really miss it. Instead, I use bath tubs that people didn't want anymore, set up high on wooden scaffolding, directly under the end of the roof gutter. The overflow from one tub goes into another bathtub, and so on. Also covering the tubs is essential if you don't want tree frogs spawning in the tub full of rain water. So, when I need more water, i open up the drain, which is 1 1/2 inch diameter.
Oh, don't forget to tell your home insurance company and local fire department if you have an in-the-ground cistern as it may help lower your fire insurance rates, and be a ready supply in case you need it for fire suppression separate from every day needs.
Nice video. I would like to mention that painting barrels green to keep light out is even better. In the same way red things look white through a red lens, green things look black through a green lens. Plants can't use green light because they can't "see" it, but you can still see in to check for wigglers!
Also, I sell some rain-barrels with my gutter company, and I like to warn people when setting up barrels that water weighs 8.345 pounds per gallon, a fact people seem to forget, so if you set up on a base, it needs to be a very sturdy base - a full 55 gallon barrel weighs over 450 pounds, so falling could kill a pet or small child!
Makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
Plants look green because they reflect green light, not absorb it. Most plants get their energy from the red and blue spectrum.
Yellow King Ah, so they should be painted Purple?
Yellow King Ah, so they should be painted Purple?
BT is great stuff! If you treat your rainwater with the mosquito dunks. The water will then also safely and effectively kill soil gnat larvae in your potted plants. Of course screens and lids also keep other contaminants out. You can use a tiny pinch of crumbs from a dunk to treat a gallon of water. One dunk will treat 100 sq. feet of water, or 748 gallons.
If you have room above ground swimming pools are cheap catchment. You can always find them end of season for free or cheaper. I bought new ones 18’ round at end of summer sale for $500 each no filters just the pool. They each hold 6000 gallons. Even in the high desert we can fill them both during the rainy season and from snow runoff. By keeping them covered we have clear water year round and plenty to water with.
How do you keep mosquitoes out of your swimming catch system? Also, did you put spigots in the swing pool to use the water?
#8 might be to not harvest rainwater off of a roof with asphalt shingles. Asphalt shingles are constantly leeching out chemicals, especially in the summer and you can end up with a lot of unfit water running off the bed of asphalt in your cisterns. Always know where the runoff comes from.
That's about every house in America dude.
@@superkillr how about metal or wood shingled roofs?
I don't know if that is a deal breaker or not. I use my rain barrel for emergency non-potable water (mostly flushing toilets and mopping floors) and it comes straight off the roof. I have a deep well with a pump, so when the power goes off, so does the water. Tests kits for bacteria and chemicals show it as potable, but I still don't drink it. Of course my barrel has a lot of changeover, so maybe that has a lot to do with it. I flush it out twice a year, and adjust the acidity now and then just to maintain the barrel and pipes, but otherwise I just leave it alone. If I had to drink it, I would filter the heck out of it anyway.
Oh please - what? I worked for someone who did asphalt roofs. Most asphalt shingles are considered "composite" - tarpaper w asphalt & rock/sand covering. For straight asphalt (no binder/covering - it will leach for 2-12 months depending on climate (Phoenix = 2 months, Edmonton = 12 months). Once it has fully cured, it will no longer become hydro-reactive. There was an asphalt roof they used for roof-gardening (straight asphalt - no composite - worsecase scenario). They had to wait 6 months until it fully cured. They then put down a soil & planted gardens. It was a city-run structure and they had to do a chem analysis and it came up clean as my pee-sample when I was 10 years old.
You don't need to catch it off the roof. Just put your funnel or what ever you use to catch the rainwater out in the open covered with a mesh screen. That way the water is falling directly out of the sky into your barrel. It may take a bit longer depending on the size of the catchment system you are using but rest assured it is CLEAN.
Slight Correction, the problem for "slow flow" from your "spigot" from the hardware store, wasn't just because it was too "small a diameter". What you video shows at 4m10s is a typical kind of "pressure" tap/faucet designed for normal houses on pressurised town water systems. Turning the tap/faucet handle does NOT turn on the water flow directly but only "allows" the tap-washer to rise up off of its seat. What makes it rise is the water pressure behind it. Taps installed at the base of a water tank you likely have about 2 to 3 psi of water pressure, not the 30 psi to 80 psi of a town supply. Special low-pressure taps (faucets) are available, where turning the handle actually directly opens the valve inside. The water then flows out more quickly, even from a half-inch diameter water-tank tap/faucet. HTH
Thank you.
@@jendubay3782 I found some drill pumps at the hardware store. They don't need to be primed.
@@jendubay3782 There are also hand pumps that work similar to a pump you would use to inflate a tire. They suck the water up on one stroke and shoot it our a hose on the opposite stroke. They have a check valve to prevent the water from flowing back out the inlet. Even if you do use a powered pump it is always a good idea to have at least one hand pump just in case you find yourself without power.
What you're SAYING then is that its recommended to have some ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE on a subject before posting a Y-T vid, and NOT just a bit of a reputation in the "Try it and post a Y-T Vid" world ? Hhhmmm.... . Interesting thought.
@@davidthegood Do you live in Ocala, Florida? I thought I saw your writings and information being sent out from a homestead in Ocala, Florida. Am I wrong? Please reply.
Check local laws some areas it is illegal to harvest rain water. Here are some plants that discourage mosquitoes, you need to put the plant leaves in water. Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora)
Native blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis)
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis)
Neem might help too, though it's a full tropical species.
I bought 2 40-gallon faux rocks that are connected to my downpouts. They are visible from the street and I live in a development in Central Florida with an HOA and no one has ever complained because they look like a big rock and blends into the Garden. I use rain water for all of my porch plants (veggies in pots) and also for adding water to my worm bins. During the summer we have rain almost daily so I have too much. But I bought them back in 2009 and it's been a great investment 👌
I like this idea. How do you prevent infestation of bugs & larvae in your container. I love using natural materials for as much as possible and using a natural container would be my preference. But one that looks like a natural material would be my second choice if necessary. Thanks!
@@Tess-py4dx I bought these from a company called ECCO back in 2008.
We've never had any problem with insects or slugs. Good luck with finding the right solution for your garden 👍
@@peggyhelblingsgardenwhatyo7920 Thank you Peggy!! I am doing a lot of research on what materials & supplies will be best, but I also don't have land right now, I live in an apartment. But I want to learn as much as I can, so when I do find the land and can purchase I am already half-way there in regards to the what and how. I know I won't know exactly what & how until I get my land, but just having the information and the ideas, I already have a jump start. I appreciate all the sharing in this community. It is very new to me. And it is greatly appreciated. Thank you-- Tess
I learned real quick about overflowing 55 gallon rain barrels under gutters so I got a 300 and something gallon sistren. Within 1 rain it was full and overflowing and within 3 days it was green and full of skeeter babies.
I never even thought to paint it black and I had no idea about the maskito puck things.
Thank you very much! I already looked into a way to filter it for drinking but I didn't bother building it because of the algae and skeeters. Time to revisit that project.
Your video was very helpful!
Loved the video and I solemnly swear not to violate any of the 7 mistakes made when rain harvesting! Thank you!
Great video, some theories I had were confirmed, specifically the algae problem. While my spouts are 1/2" and clogging isn't a problem, it was an area of improvement that I was looking for. Thanks!
I was unpleasantly surprised at how quickly I emptied a 100-gallon stock tank while watering 22 tomatoes growing in 5-gallon buckets. The sudden reality that the 400 gallons of rainwater I have would never meet the needs of my little garden during a drought year is stunning. We're rethinking the entire yard/garden. Hopefully, we'll be able to acquire two more 150-gallon stock tanks before next spring's rain! And we'll still have to rethink what vegetables we grow!
Shallow ditches cut across the gentle slope of the garden, with straw bales in them, are also an option I'm considering. I've had some success growing beans and tomatoes in bales.
I'm also saving some of the town supplied water we use in our kitchen. At least 5 gallons of clean water we pay for goes down our drain every day!
People can use gray water for their gardens too.
Above ground swimming pool is the best bang for your buck for massive amounts of water storage. No need to buy the filter system, just the pool and a cover. Connect a faucet to the drain and you are set.
Upgrade the shallow ditches into swales. Adding these to our fruit guilds this spring!
I did a science fair project in HS where I collected rainwater. Long story short, I ended up drinking water which I later tested positive for high levels of lead washed off of the old paint from the tin roof near my collection system.
So if you’re doing anything like this, don’t do that.
yes, good advice.
I haven't wanted to put a tank for my house roof because I have lead sheets aropund the toilet vent in the roof and one around my electricity pole going into my roof. The roof has cement tiles whcih I don't thinks is a problem (?).
I know you can buy paint to coat it, but nahhh.
I wish there was a material that was safe to replace the lead. If anybody knows of a product that is maleable, toxic free to go on my roof.
@@ianmcdonald8648 - they have galvanized steel and aluminum flashing that they use today instead of lead. You can get them at the hardware store.
@@umiluv thanks I will investigate here in Aus. But I wouldn't get aluminium, it will leach into the water, metal is too soft.
Good tips! It also helps to have the water storage higher than where you want to use it so you don't need any pumps. You can get a bit less than 1 PSI for every 2 feet of height. You can find charts online with more precise numbers.
Armed with this information, you can use drip irrigation and calculate how much water it will use. Find the flow rate (volume over time) at certain pressures that your irrigation is rated. Then use an online calculator, such as used for fuel injectors, and punch in that information and your new pressure from the rain barrels to find your new flow rate. It is surprisingly accurate!
That is very handy. I put one of mine on the second story and it was pretty impressive. Here in the mountains I hope to take more advantage of gravity.
Rain water is FULL of Chemtrail Chemicals . . . . Whats the POINT ?
@@grahambird1570 Then your public water reservoirs supplying your tap water are too.
@@grahambird1570 you could use a ozone generator.
@@grahambird1570 but my vegetables nearly doubled in size overnight after a good gully washing rain. And I have well water!!!
I had to wait for the golden lyric... "Put a trash can under your gutter...word to your mother." Now that, DTG MC, is some photo-sythesizin'. Oh, and the harvesting rainwater list was good too.
Thank you David for sharing your expertise in water purification knowledge! May God Bless You!!!
Thank you so much for making this video! I'm currently doing research into what I can use to bring water into my tiny house when I build it, and this helps a lot! I was really worried I'd have to invest in a bunch of super expensive equipment right off the bat, and the amount of water collected over a one-inch rainfall was really helpful in terms of keeping my hopes up about this system!
And evaporation 😊
Nice! I agree plants just love the rainwater. I'm setting up a pond now to collect rainwater and raise fish. It will hold about 6k gallons. I'm setting up a pvc irrigation system that I can turn on with a switch of a valve in the pond pumps. Hopefully there are no unforseen issues.
Mosquito bits/dunks works for fungus gnats also so it’s great for adding to any water your use on plants :)
My garage doesn't have any gutters. I've been cleaning out old trash cans and buckets from around my property and scavenging in my neighborhood. When rain is forecast, I set under the garage dripline. Between rains I move the water from the buckets into the trash cans that actually has a a lid. I dip my watering can into the trash cans to water which is fast and easy. I actually have an old tire laying around that I put the mosquito dunk stuff in. Lure them in and then kill the larvae. Yay!
Great video... few years later and still inspirational. I will say I have black rain barrels open top. I have had goldfish in their for 3 years
That quick image from UHF made my day!!
"You won a drink from the fire hose!!!"
Awesome sleeper film most people have never heard of. I still can't say the word "spatula" without thinking of `Spatula City' lol.
With my swales, I place a hugelkultur mound on the low side. This slows the water even more as the wood in the hugel mound absorbs water for later use by deep reaching roots; AND, it tends to collect more topsoil/leaves/organic material to collect as garden mulch. Thank you for this and all your informatainment vids!!!
Thanks, Tami. Yeah - if you don't have a ton of water coming down, that sounds like a great idea. Anything to keep the good stuff hanging around longer.
Good advice, I have 3 rain barrels. Each has its own drain hose to gravity flow throughout my garden. My whole backyard is garden. So these help a lot.
Each barrel is 58 gallons, resin material. I bought at HD about 15 years ago. Only I updated better hoses and spickets.
I'm starting my first garden in a few months but our country well water has a lot of heavy metals in it like iron. I thought of collecting rain water to water the garden and this video helped with ideas.
Awesome, This guy is a riot to listen to with really great advice!
Thank you - I appreciate it. I learned by making a bunch of mistakes and experiments. Glad you stopped by.
Good video. My city 's recycling center sells good barrels for really cheap (50 Gal. for 30 bucks) comes with all the things you would need, so check your recycling center before going to home depot or lowes and spending $100+
That's a decent price. I used to get them from a local feed store sometimes, and from the water treatment plant.
David The Good yes! So there's no excuse not to do this, I was just worried about mosquitos but I'll use your tips about the bacteria drop in thing! Thanks!
We live with a cistern. Pool liner in a serious wooden frame 1/2 way underground. Don’t eat or drink it. But, for all other uses, it has served for 9 years. WAY cheaper than digging a well in an area where a paper mill threatens the aquifer. This is a great video. Thank you. 💛
Excellent
I love the idea about using a pvc shut off valve instead of a faucet,i almost made mistake #3,thanks for sharing.I have used dishwashing liquid in some of the buckets that i collect water in and it seems to help with mosquito larvae,because it creates a film over the water just like oil and kills the larvae.But on my new rain barrels i will definitely put a lid on them.I will try those tablets you spoke about,just to make sure.
Great tips and a good video. I will say that not everyone can just junk up their yards with old hot tubs and what have you. We live in a gated community with an HOA, so even nice rain barrels need to be hidden. Wish we could do more, but we just can't.
Thanks very helpfull and fun thanks!
The only thing I'd add is PAINT THE PVC. PVC is degraded by UV and in a few years it will become brittle in hi-solar latitudes.
Good idea.
Put it on the north side of your house, too.
toxic, too. paint it
I put shade sail over mine but with the break down of the magnetic field, some paint might be helpful too. :)
Great tips AND--I love the end of this so much. SO MUCH.
Love the hot tub idea. I used one for a raised bed...not successfully, but moving heavy stuff is a skill I have.
Brad Lancaster is a very good source of information for water harvesting. He has two books on this very important topic.
Thank you for jogging my memory. I came across him before. He's working in a tough climate! infogalactic.com/info/Brad_Lancaster
Wonderful video. Our household water comes from 3 - 5000 tanks that collect water from our roof. We have had an algae issue for a couple of years and it never dawned on me to repaint the tanks. Lol. Thanks for the great tip (liked your rap too and I don't particularly like rap. )😅😅❤️🙏❤️
Hi @Sharon McKee! That sounds amazing that you collect rainwater for your home....I'm looking to do so as well, but I'm having a hard time finding resources/people to ask for questions... where were you able to find resources/people/groups when you installed your system?
@@reneepuvvada Hi Renee. I live in the tropics and it is traditional here to have a concrete cistern and build your house on top of it. I chose to buy 5000 fiberglass tanks from Trinadad. At the time, (1993) this was innovative for my island in the USVI. I had a professional builder helping me so I was dependent on his expertise to install and plumb the fiberglass water tanks. This probably is not the solution you are looking for. Best of luck with you project. ❤
@@ISLANDHARMONYSTJ Actually very helpful, thank you! I will look more into that!
I keep it simple. I use a funnel (covered in mesh screen to keep debris out) connected to a hose (end of it also covered in mesh screen) which drains into a plastic muti-use coffee filter (covered in mesh screen) which the water flows through into my 50 gallon rain barrel (also double covered in mesh screen). Barrel has a top with a built in slit with a screen instaled. I drain the water a gallon at at time and either boil it or drink it through a life straw. (Not the life straw brand but a better one called a "Practical Survival" water straw. Does the trick just fine.
The SWAIL (sp). I dug a pit in an uphill depression, set gravel in the base, then a 5-gal. bucket fitted w/a buried garden hose (at bottom) ... then filled the bucket w/bricks (to prevent stepping though), then laid the garden hose down hill where it fills a 100 gal. stock tank. Maybe once every two years I'll have to clean the collection bucket of fine soils. Except during extreme cold weather I collect 100-gal. in perhaps two hours. My collection tank has an overflow, therefore litter and bugs flow off. The collected water is clear and used in my garden. Water used for drinking/cooking/bathing is processed or boiled. Works great.
Excellent work.
Last year I tried Epson salts in my rain buckets, It seamed to help with the mosquitoes and Epson salts are good for the garden.
Nice!
How I harvest rainwater without a roof: I use a big truck foil and hang it between four sticks that I dug in, and use stones to give it one low point on the edge. That's where I place a tub. Love it. From time to time, I fill the tub water into a IBC container and that's it. 🤩
Nice! Just ordered a reconstituted 55 G rain barrel. I'm just getting started...baby steps, plus I have a small yard and want this for my veg garden.
Just found your video! Thank you for sharing your insight & wisdom. I am very new to the off-grid/homesteading way of living and I am researching as much as I can online & in books. I hope to attend a convention that is close by this year for my 1st time. Took a lot of good notes. Thank you!
You have a quipiness about you that's enjoyable. Thanks for the video.
Boxathon26 Now there's my new favorite word, "quippiness "
I see a rain barrel and I want it painted black.
I see the rain fall past in the summer that's how it goes
I have to turn my head until it turns to snow
🤘 awesome! hahaha lol. Be well and Good lil' brother!
this is my first time watching your channel. 1-0!!
joke aside, a black barrel full of water is also a great cost-free 'heater' for your greenhouse during the colder season. they heat up in the sun during the day and slowly release warmth at night, even when its minus degree outside they make a notable difference
@@davidthegood 🎶OooBarroll, well let me steal your water away. I long to learn to drink it if it takes me all night and day.
No one jagger.
I don't have a vegetable garden, but I am interested in using rainwater to water my native plants and trees to help conserve water. Thanks for the tips!
Glad I watched this...didn't know about mosquitoes 😳 thank you for the clear audio and getting straight to the point 😁👍
Good stuff David. Binge watching. I love your songs at the end, freaking awesome.
Cheers! Chris.
I absolutely love this dude! your delivery of practical knowledge tells me you're not talking about what you heard, but what you know. Also the bars spit at the outro summed up the whole presentation. A+ dammit boy keep it up!
Thank you. Yeah, I made a lot of mistakes and tried a lot of things before I was happy with my setup.
The mosquito dunks are also great to add to my indoor plant watering can! They kill gnat larvae in my indoor plants that just LOVE the moist soil for laying eggs in.
Thank you! Great video. My dad collects water similar way and going to do the same. Good points that I will take into use 👍
Cool rap and excellent tips. Wish I had the space to grow and live like that!
Such a fun channel. Thanks for the advice and for the entertainment, too. :)
You bet. Thank you.
Stumbled on your channel. As a new yorker this is a whole new world. Thank you for the detailed info and your awesome sarcasm!
About the swales. We have about 2" of top soil in the hill country of Texas, but we use berms for water capture. Great vid! Fun presentation.
Black ping pong balls (or industrial equivalent) covering the water surface of a tub is very effective in reducing evaporation and probably also against mosquito larvi.
To get rid of the mosquito problem, you should build a ring of flat ponds around your house and add a drop of dish liquid and put a candle/electric light above or in it, that reflects on the water. Especially at night, this will help you a lot, here's why:
Mosquitoes love water and land on its surface, and they also love bight lights, which attracts them. So they fly to the enlightened pond and try to sit down on the water surface. Now comes the dish liquid in play, which lowers the tension of the water surface on which the light weight mosquitoes usually land. If that tension is gone, they sink into the water and since their wing surface is too big, they can't get up again and drown.
It works pretty well and I wonder why that isn't used in tropical regions as a standard to keep the nasty insects away from the houses. And it is not just cheap and effective, but modern dish liquid isn't ecological harmful and with all the dead insects on the bottom of the pond, you have great fertilizer (food for very bad times;-).
Maybe it's necessary to build two rings to be 100% effective and/or shield the light off to the outside, so that only insects that are within the ring are attracted by the light. But if I was in a tropical place, I would try that to get rid of the mosquito problem.
'Dish liquid' is made of chemical detergents, synthetic dyes, and synthetic fragrances. Not something I want on my dishes, much less in ponds. Why not have mosquito and mosquito larvae eating fish in the ponds, instead?
then take curd soap. Don't know how effective fish are. And it's more work to keep them happy than just drowning the insects, I guess.
Thank you for the info on swales!
That still frame from UHF just made my day. XD
Haven't read anything in the comments so here go some specifics about water many over look when planning where to place and support the weight of your collection system. If this is overlooked it can have tragic consequences.
If this was covered in a previous video then please disregard.
You should know:
1 gallon = 8.3453 lbs
7.4805 gallons = 1 cubic foot
1 cubic foot = 62.4271 lbs.
Cheers
You are correct, Jose. I once had a poorly supported barrel and the foundation collapsed. Worth considering.
We enjoyed this video so much that we are your latest subs!! Unfortunately, where we are building our off-grid home we are limited to capturing and keeping only 110 gallons of the stuff. But we'll take it! Catch us as we prepare to build off grid! Great video.
IBC's are good. They are 1000 litres 265 imperial gallons, are nice and square so can be packed closely and can be stacked if on a firm base.
I was trying to remember how i found your channel and this is the video i first watch from you. I was researching rainwater harvesting so glad i did though.
I am glad you found me.
One thing I already thought about are the mozzies since I am very allergic to insect bites. I have 2 rain drums and made covers out of stretched pantyhoses - perfect. Even in Cornwall you need to harvest rainwater, because when it does eventually get hot and dry, the waterboard puts out a hose pipe ban for house owners. One way of not having to repair the leaking water reservoirs and pipeines in England, very clever...
George Tempest I know you commented almost a year ago but I'm curious about what a hose pipe ban is all about.
@@anitaarchibald6138 The bans are imposed by water companies to prevent water being wasted. No use of hosepipes, no car washing etc...
@@anitaarchibald6138 Agriculture is destroying the planet. It is very frustrating how much miss information there is on this topic. Grazing can actually sequester far more carbon than forests at a much, much faster rate. If we grazed animals on a large enough scale, we could actually mitigate all human emissions. Growing plants can not do this. Plant agriculture uses massive amounts of fossil fuels and unlike grazing cattle, it doesn't mitigate its own emissions. The soil microbiome is killed with chemicals and that dead soil is lost rapidly, causing complete land infertility and desertification. Grazing animals is the fastest way to replenish these lands, bring the microbes back, give nutrients back, rehydrate, break up impaction, and build soil faster than any other process. It would take nature decades to build the amount of soil made in a couple of yrs of Grazing.
@@anitaarchibald6138 I believe a hose pipe is simply an American outdoor gardening hose.
Housepipe is a garden hose, they also tax televisions, window screens too. Lived in UK three years. Guess not having bugs flying in is luxury-worthy of taxation.
I like to keep it simple also. Cheap and cheerful I like your style and it fits my budget. I have a couple big blue barrels. Take care Rob and Nat
Thank you - I appreciate it.
Absolutely great information, thank you for sharing. I am in this process at the moment.
Here in the UK i use IBC containers. 1000 litre square block in a cage on a pallet (skid) They can be linked together and have a decent 4" outflow tap. If you set them up correctly you can have a very decent system. They are clean very strong. I paid under $50 for my last one.
This is the most realistic advice about rain collection by an American. The only difference is that we drink it here in Vietnam.
How do you filter it and make it safe for drinking?
@@ASchell90 life straw but In all honesty boil it and don't store it in anything toxic the only thing you may have to worry about would would be air pollutants
Hell yeah.
I used to drink water from a tank fed from the roof of an old barn in New Zealand,every time I drove past in the tractor I'd stop and get a drink,nothing better than clean fresh rainwater. One day I climbed the ladder to see if any leaves or other detritus were floating in the tank,there wasn't,but there was a dead possum,it had been there so long it was just hair and bone remaining. I didn't drink from that tank anymore.....
Great advice and awesome rap! Love your videos! Awesome to see other survival prepper gardeners who play guitar! It is so cool how positive and optimistic and funny/humorous you are, that is kind of lacking in the survival community. Keep up the great videos, cheers
Thank yo, much appreciated. God is in control, so I try not to worry myself too much.
It's the rap for me 🎶 word to your mother 👏😄
Citronella plants ward mosquitoes as well. Hadn't much luck planting in ground, but grew well in a large pot
Thank you so much for sharing God bless you and yours always
Collect rain water! Legal or not, this is all of our planet!
Yea, and, the oil, and natural gas, coal, the world is ours for the taking :|
I think that any code tends to be over encompassing because of simplicity or not enough information was chewed on when implementing the code or law.
I wonder if people would be willing to take a small test to certify they know why harvesting water can be a nuisance (mosquitoes) and that by doing so they will put in place best practices to eliminate such nuisances?
Camez Cym There are stupid ways to harvest water, and smart ways. Just as there are smart ways of using cars, guns, blow torches, kitchen knives, etc, and stupid ways. And what would a test solve other than you know what answer they want? We take tests to drive cars and still thousands are killed every year. But we don’t prohibit cars, do we? As long as the city lets hundreds of thousands of gallons rainwater run into sewers and flow straight to the ocean, I’ll keep harvesting.
@@camezcym4975 Does the oil, gas and coal fall in your garden? On your roof? AS for mosquito's a simple mosquito mesh plug works wonders and yip, have had tanks for years.
Sorry, let me say what I had an itch against was the gung ho approach to doing things. Sure harvest water, but if there are regulations against it, maybe that's an opportunity to show that collecting rain water is good, and setup store to sell the equipment. There are times a law is put in for good reason. In fact, if a person could make the barrels out of old tires, that could be a win-win as tires are pointed out as a source for the standing water that mosquitoes breed in
@@camezcym4975 True. In SA we are totally encouraged to harvest rainwater, I have 30 000 Litres currently, but yes just up and putting in anything can be dangerous. We have that in the rural areas here where they use weird things to collect rainwater and end up with dysentery....etc...... So yes I know what you trying to say, the mosquito things are only about R50 though but yes most wont worry about it.
I have three 55-gallon containers to catch rainwater; store it in plastic totes, empty kitty litter buckets I find on the curb, and anything else I can find. I use it for flushing, indoor plants, rinse in laundry (not wash -- I use hot), washing dishes; it goes on my strawberry garden and my veg garden. My dog prefers rainwater over tap water any day. I use it to rinse off the patio and wash my car. I probably have one of the lowest water bills ($7.00 a month) around. I do not drink it, but use rainwater for everything else possible. I try to divert the first few minutes of flow off roof to a separate container to remove roof dirt (goes to garden) then the flow is fairly pure, but the debris floats to the bottom of the 55-gallon drum anyway.
Excellent work.
I bought 2 huge 1800 gallon burial type plastic food grade tanks (new) off Craigslist for less than half retail Both will be for drinking/bathing water but one will also power a small hydro system whenever it's raining. I'll have a lot of roof surface area (In a rainforest!) for collection. Lots of people's plans crash and burn and your plans can prosper from this if you have cash
Thank you for this excellent video. We are getting 2 used 275 gal food containers off craigslist to harvest rainwater from our gutters--My fellow homesteader (my almost 4-year-old) and i love your videos. She calls you "Deva"--which is kind of cool because one meaning of the word "deva" is a plant spirit. Would love a couple big solar panels to harvest sunlight too, but can't afford that yet. Ever consider doing a vid on sun harvesting with cheap options? (if any exist).
The main problem with algae (for drinking water) is that it can give a bad taste or smell to the water. As David says here, it's not much of a problem for other water uses, such as gardening or fish culture.
A rain barrel in the garden that we use is what we chop up plant waste and toss in and stir to make water we use on the plants like fertilizer. Lol, Grass Tea? I don't know what to call it.
@@alfr1 That concoction is often called “weed tea.” It can be a very effective fertilizer.
seriously AWESOME! I'm from the Virgin Islands (4th generation) and LOVE the way you've presented this! And the rap...WOW haha nice surprise ending :-) loved it !
Hey - thank you. Much appreciated. 4th Gen VI - that's awesome. A ton of transplants there, but you're original crew!
thank you sr. I started my rain water collection with leaf filters/gutters. and screened 55 gallon rain barrels w/ just garden hoses . I ran all barrels to a sup pump in a buried container I placed a 1500 gallon tank, the sump filled the 1500 gallon tank in in less then 2 hours of rain so I bought 2 more 1500 gal tanks (4500 gal). they were filled in no time. 2 storms did the trick.i live in Fresno County ca. (Drought) so if I can do this in the high desert you can too. oh ya I almost for got im collecting this h20 off of a 1200 sq ft roof. with 3 rain gutters.
Nice advice man ... I keep a 5 gallon bucket under my ac condenser pump line and with humidity here in GA, it has been known to collect 10 + gallons a day.
I have two questions: What specifically do you use as a spigot, like size and style. I've seen the plastic gate valves -- would that do the trick? And how do you screen your hot tubs, and what kind of screening? The fabric mosquito netting or window screen?
your cool very informative cheers
I have used "Dunks" for over 10 years. When walking around a pond I put one in the edge (in the grass) so it won't blow somewhere else, every 3 paces (approx. 9' or 3m). A ditch needs one per 6m square or 50 square feet. #1 thing to do is reapply (not every month as recommended by manufacturer) but every 28 days. I will climb out of bed at 11 at night to spend an hour "dunking" because I have found every time I dunk at 29 or more days there is a flush of mosquitoes for a few days. Great product.
Semi-urban lot here. Most of my flat ground is in the front yard & I need much of the rest for the actual garden. (Although front yard food forest is in my mid term plans!) So, no hot tubs for me, but I hope to install a couple of rain barrels. You've convinced me that 3-4 would be better than the 2 I've planned on... should be able to hook 2 together by each downspout, right?
And I need to get some swales e into my slopes pronto! Good vid, thanks for the solid advice.
Not really a prepper but I do like to garden! 😁
I've always wondered what older McLovin would look like. Great video !
HAHAHAHAHA
😂😂😂
Is this him??
@@boathemian7694 I highly doubt it...but is he? 🤣
Oof
Really appreciate the tips and the rap... hahahahahaha totally didn't see it coming, it was great!
Thank you.
The pvc valves are the best way to go you can get poly tanks that match the colour of the different types of coated zinc roofing but plain black tanks work just the same but are much cheaper so swales will save you so much and if at the end of the swale you can dig a pond that gives you a really large storage
Thanks for the great ideas about water catchment! :)
Rap was awesome!
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Criswell hell ya it was ...glad I waited!
Put up bat houses to attract bats for mosquito control as well.
Also keep a net over to stop the little critters like bats falling in and drowning.i rescued a pipistrelle bat once from a open water butt.also a friends rescued young tawny owl fell in and wasn't so fortunate.
we did it but they never came to live in those 😆
terrible idea they transmit a lot of diseases and tend to sht everywhere including into water.
@@fiddlestickzmuzik a single bat house doesn't hold enough bats for that to be an issue and one or two houses is plenty.
@@MrJohnisthename I got bats that live close to my house they are attracted to my security light pole and eat the bugs up. But that snomageddon we got in February might have killed em off haven't seen em this summer.
I got 2 55 gallon barrels in January to catch rain water from our roof….we haven’t had a measurable drop of rain yet this year. I’m highly envious of anyone that gets more than 5” a year.