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Tuesday, November 11

Water, H2O, Aqua...

When we were looking at buying land a good water supply was one of our main priorities. We wanted to be able to grow lots of trees and vegies. And although we are fairly conservative with our water usage we didn't want water to be a constant worry.

As naive first time buyers we probably didn't look into it enough- we just believed the advertising.

Rainbow Love Farm was listed as having a 5000 gallon water tank, a dam and an underground bore water system with a new pump. Well although in theory it did have these we have since not had a really easy time with our water supply.

THE TANK
When we moved in we discovered that the house tank was full of really disgusting brown, bore water. So we emptyed it and bought a load of water and were happy...for awhile.
The first time it rained we discovered that the guttering actually ran uphill to the tank! It just was not going to fill up. We soon ran out of water again. This time I was standing talking to the delivery driver as he pumped water into the tank....that's when I saw it! The water was running out a huge hole as fast as it was going in.
I frantically ran around plugging the hole up with everything from clay and sticks to silicone but the pressure was too great. Saddly I watched as $150 worth of water soaked into the ground.

Finally last year we were able to buy a new tank and fix up the guttering.My profile pic is me looking lovingly at the new tank.

THE DAM
The dam was not very big and in the first drought period it dried up. It's looking a bit better lately.




THE BORE
The brand new bore pump had disappeared in between the time when we viewed the block and when we moved in. In it's place was a rusty old pump. Unfortunately we didn't have any photos of the one that was here so we couldn't prove that it had been switched. (Who would think to take photos of a pump?) When we finally got the old pump going it was to discover that the bore water was so mineral rich that it burnt the plants and was therefore pretty useless.


On top of all this our hot water tank started leaking about two months ago and has been losing litres of water each day. Finally the new one is in. So I think all our water troubles are over for awhile. We even have small back-up tanks on Zan's room and the chook pen.
Last week we almost ran out of water. But on Friday it rained! Wahoooo!

7 comments:

Theresa said...

you're a lucky lady to live on the land like this...my dream

thanks for checking out my blog

karisma said...

Wow! You really do have to check everything when changing properties hey? I remember someone warning me of that when we moved. If its not on the contract they can take it. Some people just do not seem to have any problems with ripping off others.

I hope your water troubles are over! That rainbow looks divine.

Amber said...

Oh wow... Life looks challenging and yet so rich on land.
I grew up on a 25 acres and there never seemed to be a dull week of water stories. You took me back there for a moment..
I love that picture of you gazing at the tank..xxxx

Jodi said...

It's an issue for Australia and yet so many people remain ignorant about water.

Hope the rain continues to fall on your gorgeous farm

hippymummy said...

Your post has made me take stock of how many things we take forgranted. We have water on tap, most people would never even think about how lucky we are to have it. Of course i live in a rented home so it wasn't up to me to ensure a constant water supply, i pay less than £200 a year to have unlimited water, as many showers, baths, paddling pools and water fights as we like, never giving any thought as to how it gets here. Whilst i am careful with water, we've always turned off when brushing teeth instead of leaving the tap running,rarely having baths, deep or otherwise but i'm not frugal so there are probably plenty of other ways we could be more economical. We do collect water for the garden but to be fair it often gets used up in water fights - which i suppose is still saving tap water as we don't the tap to fill up weapons of the wet, squeal causing soaker type. Wow,how much do i waffle??!!! I'd talk the hind legs off a donkey my mam said and she's right - metaphorically anyway!
As for the tightwads who removed your various pumps, the gods don't pay back in money and those pieces of equipment will cause them problems. Taking away the items necessary to provide decent water to people with a very young family is a pretty rotten way to behave, skinflints! Hope you get enough of rain to continue providing you with a plentyful supply whilst not hindering your kiddos outside playing fun! xXx

Zz... said...

LOL if you weren't in Australia I'd think you had offended some water gods! You seem to have managed remarkably well growing so much amazing produce despite it all! Did either of you have to take any horticultural lessons at all or you were just born with green thumbs? I want to grow my own produce one day but I suspect that I wouldn't get very far without lessons...

karisma said...

Hey! Just me again! I was relating your water woes to dp today and he told me that his family in Turkey who lived on a farm also had bore water. Apparently they used to pump the water into a dam and let it sit before using it! It somehow sorts out the mineral rich thing! Just a thought!

PPS: My chooks are coming along nicely! I have been talking to the naughty ones and giving them lots of yummy food and freedom. The feathers are coming in, they are laying and they are even being nice to Henrietta! Yay!

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