Harvesting Rainwater—Part One

 

 

 

 

 

I have mentioned before that we live on top of a “ridge.”  To have a well one would have to drill very deep.  Down the hill, near where Darryl is building his house, there is a well but the water has a great deal of sulfur in it.  The local water company has run water lines throughout the county, bring public water to almost everyone.  We hooked onto the line coming onto the property when we moved here seven years ago.  However, we have wished we could do something to have our own water supply.  Having a cistern to hold rainwater captured from the house roof has been an option.  But, we just couldn’t figure out where to put one.  We put gutters on the house and did acquire some poly tanks to catch and hold a few hundred gallons of water, primarily to be used for watering the garden and the flower beds.

Darryl had determined that he was going to purchase some concrete septic tanks and use them for cisterns at his new house.  We had considered that as well, but as I said, we couldn’t figure out just where we would put them.  A few weeks ago, while discussing this again, it just came to me that they could be put right next to our house, between it and the driveway.  Since Darryl was ready to buy his tanks and get them set in it seemed the time was right for us to go ahead and get ours and get them all done at the same time.

So, we are putting in two tanks, each with a capacity of 1500 gallons.  When filled they will give us 3000 gallons or a bit more.  We have had to be ultra conservative of water in the past and will have to do so again.  Generally we get rains regularly enough that we shouldn’t have much of a problem but perhaps during the summer months we will need to exercise more care.

Here are a few photos of the cistern project.

Due to rock right under the surface we were unable to dig down deep enough to set the tanks under ground.







In order to put the tanks as deep as possible I spent several hours busting out rock with a sledge hammer.






This photo shows some of the rock along with dirt removed from the hole we had dug.  The fellow used a small backhoe to dig the area out.  I finished it with sledge hammer, shovels, and a lot of labor.



This is as deep as it gets!  This was taken just prior to delivery of the first tank.








The first tank has arrived and is being prepared to be set into the hole.  We will continue with the story in part two.

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How Long Is Forever?

I know there are many answers to that question but I think the appropriate response for me would be “since I last posted!”  The last post is dated June 19th.  A lot has transpired since then.  I’ll try to give you a brief recap of what has been happening here on Cedar Ridge.

The last weekend in June we drove up to central Illinois to attend a annual family reunion.  Our oldest son left his daughter, Tana, with us to spend about a month.  We went from central Illinois on to Wisconsin to our daughter’s home for a short visit—we also got to meet our new great-grandson, Jason.

Upon our return home we were in the middle of blackberry season.  I had picked 4 gallon before we left and Darryl, Danny and the grandsons had been busy while we were gone.  Connie and Anne were canning blackberries, Danny was freezing blackberries.  And, we were all eating a lot of them fresh.  We lost track of exactly how many we picked but we know it was over 60 gallons.  That is a lot of berries, and I might add, scratches and chiggers.

July was mostly hot and dry.  Our garden suffered.  I watered some items but some things just had to be let go.  I got our garlic pulled and hung up to dry, our potatoes dug and also the onions harvested.  We have been getting a few tomatoes but our plants have been hit with some kind of fungus and it doesn’t appear that we will get a lot of tomatoes. 

Darryl and Anne got away for a couple of days—a late anniversary celebration.  We kept the grandkids and did the milking.  One afternoon we took Darryl’s four and Tana to the county lake fishing.  The pan fish were biting and several were caught.  Of course we had to keep almost all of them.  After cleaning 10 or 12 I decided we had enough for our “fish fry.”  Darryl and Anne got home before we were ready to eat so we invited them to join us.  The kids were all pretty excited about not only catching fish but in have “their” fish for supper.

July 19th was our 47th wedding anniversary.  We had talked about taking a couple of days and doing something special but with the hot days we decided to put that off.  So, we took Tana with us and went to Bowling Green where we visited several thrift shops and finished off the afternoon by going to Chaney’s Dairy Barn for some of their farm made ice cream.

That weekend our son, Mark, from Illinois came to spend a few days and take his daughter back home.  Our granddaughter, Beth, from Wisconsin drove to Mark’s home and she and her new son (our great-grandson) came as well.  We had a very enjoyable weekend.

In the last two weeks we started another big project which I’ll write about in another post.  Also, this last week I helped Darryl put up more hay and Connie and I canned 35 quarts of peaches.  We bought enough peaches so that we could share with Darryl’s and Danny and have quite a few to put into the refrigerator to eat fresh.

I’ll try to not take forever before posting again.

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Some Kitchen Remodeling

In 2004 when we were getting the house ready to live in we laid down cement board and put ceramic tile over it for a stove board.  We also put the same on the wall behind where our woodstove would sit.

This photo was taken before the hardwood floor was put down.  Here is one after it was finished and with our newly purchased wood stove set up/


As you know, if you have been reading my blog for awhile, we replaced this little stove with a wood burning cookstove with a large firebox that allows us to both cook and heat the house.

In this picture you can see how the cookstove takes up about all of the stove board. 



Once I built in the new cabinet we saw that we needed to move the stove a bit more to the left but there wasn’t room.  So, here came the remodeling project.

This is just prior to beginning.  You can see the limited amount of space between the stove and the cabinet on the right.

In this picture you can see that I have cut the oak flooring and am in the process of taking up that next to the stove board.  It did pain me a bit to think of the work my oldest son, Mark, put into laying all of this hardwood that summer of 2004.

All of the hardwood flooring that I needed to take up has been removed.  The next step was to put down some 1/2” cement board and lay more tile.  There was a bit of a problem there.  The tile I had used had been discontinued.  We got the tile that was listed as the replacement.  But, as we prepared to put it down we discovered that it was just a bit larger by almost 1/4”.  That forced me to squeeze the tiles together a bit more than I would have wished.

The tile is laid down and the trim between the tile and the oak floor is in place.  After the tile had set I grouted the joints.  To take care of the wall I decided to not add tile but to place a piece of metal on the wall with about an inch of air space behind it.  I painted the metal white.

Here is a view of the completed project.  Another and larger view is below.

Here you can see the new kitchen island, the new cabinet and the expanded stove board.  Now, what else can I find to do?

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Another Project Completed

When we were getting the house ready to live in back in 2004 we bought and installed a 220 volt A/C in the corner of the kitchen.  The fellow who had started building the house had designed it to have a A/C there.  We found that we used the A/C very little, just didn’t believe it to be healthful coming out of the heat into a cold house, etc.  We had discussed taking the A/C out and building in a cabinet.  Since the area is right next to the woodburning cookstove it would be very convenient.

Here is a photo of the area.  We had a free standing cabinet in the very corner.  We set our trash can in the area as well as had an area for the animal’s food and water.



I started the project on Wednesday, May 4th by removing the A/C.  After getting everything ready, removing screws, etc. Darryl came and helped me physically remove the unit.  After putting up siding and drywall I started on a new cabinet.

This photo shows the basic framework done, the countertop built and installed.  The building of the doors and drawers had yet to be done.

This is the completed cabinet.  It was built to match the kitchen island I built a few weeks ago. (See my post.)  The countertop is made from oak flooring we had left over from putting down our floors.  The top was “finished” with a few coats of walnut oil.


I stood on a chair to take this picture.  You can see the countertop much better.  The small door on the right hides our trash can.  (We had to buy a bit smaller one!)  Connie has yet to figure out just what she is going to put into the cabinet.  What a problem!

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Update On Connie’s Flowerbed

I did a post two years ago (see here)

on the flowerbed I enclosed in landscape timbers and leveled out.  Connie has added more plants each summer and the flower bed is looking pretty nice.  Here are a few photos that I just took a few minutes ago.

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A Ripe Tomato!

Never have I had a ripe tomato in early May.  But, I must admit I cheated a bit.  Late last fall I noticed that I had a volunteer tomato plant in the garden.  Just before the first frost I transplanted it into a flower pot and brought it into the house.  A few months ago the plant began to bloom and I shook the blooms and brushed them with my finger.  And, three set on .  Later there were a couple more.  A few days ago I noticed that the first one to set on was beginning to turn red.  Here are some photos that I snapped yesterday afternoon.

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A Few More Projects Made on the Craftsman Router Crafter

I keep playing with my Craftsman Router Crafter.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve turned out a few more items.

I made two of these candlesticks.  The basic part was turned several months ago, shortly after I got my machine.  The top was too small to allow me to drill a hole for the candle so I just let them sit.  Recently I purchased some brass candle cups and I just fastened them on the top.  I also made a base for each of them.  The effect is often called a “pineapple” pattern.  It is achieved by turning both a left and right spiral.
This is a close-up so you can see the effect.

This is a candlestick with 3 flutes and a hollow center.  I think it is kind of neat.



These two candle holders are just simple, short turned pieces of cedar with a candle cup.

This is a mug tree made from the cedar.  The “limbs” are made with shaker pegs.  They are almost too large.  I’ll have to try and find something else.

Which item do you like?

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