Got a Question from Doomer, and it was all about Water! Which was what water sources do we have on the farm and what kind of cost outputs have we put into them.. Well worth anwsering her in a bit of detail on this one..

Our Farm came with a total of three wells, One closed (but in a true need, could be openned and used for critter or garden needs) one a deep water well, which we took off power and auto pump and had a plumper put on a hand pump (total cost to do so 100 dollars) so that we have access to fresh clean water off grid, the house is on the second active well, a shallow well, we have fresh running water not only to the house but also in the little barn from this well. When we moved in, the pump was the oldest thing in the house and needed to be replaced.. in total between the plumper, the fact that I put in a strong pump, bigger holding tank and a bit of extra work I had him do it cost us a thousand to get that all put in, to date it works like a charm and has required no extra’s that we have not been able to do ourselves.

The house is set up so that with a flick of the switch, and the turn of a pipe that I can run the big back barn, house and little barns all off the deep drilled well if I was willing to take it off the hand pump and onto power again.. This is a good thing, if with climate change, and depending on our water tables in the future if needed,  we could move to a wind/solor powered system to run everything off the deep well and there for have a much better change of not running out of water.

We also have set up a number of rain water catch systems off of our metal roofs, so we catch and keep rain water for the gardens off the house, the little barn and someday in the near future, hopefully off the big barn as well..

So I had to dig out the book for you CD, we have got all our rain barrols from farm sales, and for the eight barrels we have, we have paid around 100 in cash plus time and gas to get to sales and back, DH says we have put another hundred into gutters, plus man hours to put them up and take them down, clean them and keep them in repair.

By the big back barn is a huge cement cystern, which could be used as a rain water catch if we ever wanted to do so, we have not at this time, but its been priced and it would cost us another 100 to do that side of the barn and then most likely 10 farm sale parts/pipes to get that filtered but good rain water to the cystern..

Currently, we have two slough on the farm and small pond, which we keep digging and making bigger/deeper per year.. 

One of the future plans is to run all the rain water off the barn, collect it and run all the extra into the pond, I think this is a great idea as we continue to grow/deepen the pond.. as this is a natural watering point for the barn critters, its worth noting that while I do let the ducks clean and bath in the “main slew” which we have also dug down a bit, allowing good spots for bathing, we have never encouraged or allowed the ducks to go to the “big pond” as we would perfer them to not be pooing in it.

One of the qustions from CD was about, how would my farm do on a dry year or two.. and the answer would be, we would do better then alot of others and it would add to the work load, I could and would set up from the rainbarrels to collect overflow, I would have to hand pump from the big back well more, we would need to put the collection systems in place on the big barn

However having said that, I have also studied and worked with planting out in dry land style, I would leave all sqaure foot gardening methods behind, I would move right over to Steve Solmans gardening in hard times spacing, which I tend to do most of the time anyway, but between his methods and mulching, I do believe that in even in hard dry and hot summers, I would still be able to make it work to a decent amount, there is a reason, I have a “shade garden” done by a ring of tree’s, if I really needed to, I can plant the whole thing into beans, and root veggies, I have area’s that I know I could grow sqaush on forest edges, allowing the plants to have both the full sun they require and at the same time, allowing the fruit to grow up the tree’s

Don’t forget that we also have huge hugelbeds that have been sunk into a lower in the spring holds water, that has been allowed to soak up in the wood and fill with water, that also would allow me to grow things in it that others would find dieing because of lack of water, where they would barely require any watering at all, other then starting them..

Most of those things didn’t cost money per say, they cost time, manhours and research and reading.. They don’t really fit well into modern farming methods but they would be good in times of dryness for sure.

Let me know if you have more questions that I have missed..