Resilience: Climate Change And The Humble Eavestrough

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Welcome back to the fall/winter season of Resilience :=) Let’s talk about what climate change is doing to rainfall, how that affects our buildings, and the importance of the humble eavestrough. I learned something about eavestroughs (sp?) this past spring and summer and thought we could kick off with this topic as the fall rains approach in some parts of the continent. More below:

There are great covers, but I do love Malvina Reynolds' original.*

Climate Change And Rainfall

The general rule is that climate change will dry up dry areas and wetten wet areas. Generally, the mid- and south-west gets drier and the east gets wetter, more so closer to the Atlantic. This post then concerns folks in wet areas where the rainfall becomes more intense and prolonged.

Here’s an example. This is part of what renowned climate blogger Robert Scribbler had to say about Louisiana’s great flood of 2016, the day before the clouds opened:

Rain bomb. It’s a new kind of severe rainstorm that’s capable of overwhelming a city’s flood-handling capabilities in just an hour or two. Of generating 2-inch-plus per hour rainfall events in odd places and at unexpected times. A type of severe storm that’s been enabled by all the added heat and atmospheric moisture loading resulting from human-forced climate change…

Lately, due in large part to an atmosphere and ocean surface that’s about 1.2 degrees Celsius hotter than 1880s values and related added atmospheric moisture, the powerful, damaging, and life-threatening rain bombs have been going off hard and heavy across the globe… And now, a very hot Gulf of Mexico appears to be hurling a number of similarly powerful storms at the U.S. Gulf Coast…

To be clear, these are just thunderstorms associated with a very hot and moist weather pattern over the Gulf — but they’re producing rainfall amounts usually seen in strong tropical cyclones…

To this point, it’s also worth noting that forecasting rain bombs can be difficult, particularly so during recent years. Monitors like NOAA can track the underlying conditions, but it’s generally tough to see exactly where the big precipitation spike will occur until perhaps a few hours before the rain starts falling.
Part of this prediction difficulty is likely due to the fact that the added atmospheric moisture loading — 8 percent since the 1880s and 5 percent since the late 1970s — due to global warming has increased instability to the point where new, and less well understood, types of weather are being generated.
https://robertscribbler.com/2016/08/09/hot-gulf-of-mexico-hurls-rain-bom...

A week later, Scribbler said this:

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By burning fossil fuels in such high volumes for so long, that’s what we’ve done. We’ve added heat and moisture fuel to the atmospheric engine such that historic, unprecedented rain events now seem to be a weekly occurrence. And the strength of storms hasn’t increased by only a bit: the strongest storms are now exceptionally more powerful than they were back before so much CO2 and other greenhouse gasses turned the Earth’s atmosphere into something the structures of human civilization aren’t really engineered to handle.

Yikes. You get the idea.

To be sure, folks who live in flood-prone areas – or even nearby, need not bother with eavestroughs. They need a moving truck.

The Humble Eavestrough

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Eavestroughs, however, are important to folks who live in wet areas becoming wetter without high flood risk. Like myself. We live in a suburban house in a village in eastern Ontario, where the rainfall is becoming more intense, creating runoff problems, but not (yet?) any flood risk. Our house was built in the 80s. We replaced the roof 2 years ago, but the eavestroughs were the original ones. (Sorry, folks, but I’m not comfortable with putting up photos of our humble home.) We’ve lived here for five years now and what were at first occasional torrential rains have become regular.

The 80s eavestroughs worked just fine for decades with the normal amounts of rainfall for our area. It only needed the usual cleaning and the odd replacement of a pipe or a spout here and there. But it could not cope with the changes in our regional climate. The increased amount and intensity of the rains of this past decade or so gradually overran its capacity and caused some property damage that, over time, would only have become worse.

I’ve watched water overrun sections of the multi-level roof, particularly the sides of the attached garage. Sheets of water would overflow the eavestroughs and the downspouts would be under much higher pressure. The garage’s cement floor developed water problems in sections and the overflow water weakened the stone path and stairs on one side. In the early spring of this year, I was dead keen to add rain barrels to feed the garden’s vegies and flowers. AB gave me some really helpful advice and I found some 250l totes that would be perfect.

The more I trampled around the house looking up and clambering up and down the ladder, the more I realized that we had to replace the eavestroughs first. To be honest, I’ve never paid any more attention to eavestroughs than the usual cleaning out of leaves once a year or so. I always thought that putting up a mesh leaf guard would be terribly clever, but never got around to it. Seeing is believing, though, so the rain barrel money – and then some - went to a new eavestrough system.

Sadly, my back is misbehaving, so I hired an installer. This is what’s available these days: bigger capacity troughs and downspouts, as well as built in leaf guard.

Way bigger
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Cool leaf guards pre-installed or added
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Also, the contractor showed me how to redirect the flow of water off the roof. The new angles and downspout placements steers the water in much more logical paths. The bigger eavestroughs now work together with the lay of the property to move the water much more effectively and efficiently away from the house.

Now I can save up for big water totes again. They will work much better as rain barrels, once installed under the new downspouts in new locations, than had I just slapped them onto the old downspouts. Now I can also recast the garage’s cement floor, more confident that it will keep dry. Heck, I may even paint it!

This is just a small, suburban example of doing the small things in property maintenance to counteract local climate change. It will halt the water damage and prevent it from worsening and spreading to other areas of the house. (I friggin’ well hope :=) I’m in the fortunate position of not (yet?) being in a flood-prone area and only having to be concerned with property maintenance. There are folks hurting everywhere from severe water damage due to climate change (and bad land planning.) My heart goes out to them.

If you’re in a wet area getting wetter, and fairly safe from flooding, I hope that this little maintenance story would have to you look again at the present state of your eavestroughs. It could save you some aggravation over the longer term. Do tell us about your eavestroughs adventures or your rainwater experiences and share with us your lessons learned and advice.

Peace be with us (long as our basements stay dry :=)
gerrit

* Malvina Reynolds wrote this song originally as part of a campaign to stop above-ground nuclear testing, which was putting strontium-90 in the air, where it was washed down by the rain, got into the soil and thence to the grass, which was eaten by cows. When children drank the cows’ milk the strontium-90, chemically similar to calcium but radioactive, was deposited in their bones. Mothers saved their children’s baby teeth and sent them in to be tested by scientists who indeed found elevated levels of strontium-90 in their teeth. A year after this song was written, President Kennedy signed the treaty against above-ground testing.

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Lake Huron is rising. Most houses around here don't have basements because of how damp the ground is around the lake. You would hit ground water before you got deep enough for a basement. So we added eaves troughs to help direct the water away from the house foundation.

I think Michigan will be as ok as ok can be with climate change. From a map I saw, it appears that the upper peninsula goes underwater except for the higher parts of the Porcupine Mountains as does much of the tip of the northern lower. It isn't detailed enough to know if our home goes with it. I looked for the map, there are so many different ones, and I couldn't find it.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Gerrit's picture

Everyone will need a step up from their present water management. Folks like you and I may only need to upgrade eavestroughs. Others in more high flood-risk areas may need more. Some, a lot more. Thanks, dkmich :=)

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

My hometown in far-northern Indiana, just a few miles south of the Michigan line, and situated over part of the Kankakee Wetlands, had many older homes that had what were called 'Michigan Basements'. I don't know if these could be used today or if they could be retrofitted into existing housing.

I'm sorry I can't supply any engineering or construction facts, but I'm just remembering what I saw as a kid.

The 'Michigan Basement's top edge matched the footprint of the house, and that shape extended may 4'-6' from ground-level. Then the basement's footprint was narrowed about 4' in, all around, with a sloping wall of dirt allowed to extend about another 4-5 feet to what became the basement floor level. This made a wall about 4' high and 4' deep all around the basement's perimeter.

This wall of dirt may have been packed solid, maybe even with fill-dirt added. Although some walls were left unfinished, it was more common that they were whitewashed or covered with silver waterproof paint. My grandparents' basement had a sump pump, which may have been a necessary part of the design. (The wall made a good place for my grandmother's array of canned goods.)

The idea was that those walls served as dikes that offered some protection when the always-high water table rose, as it was known to do not only in wet seasons, but for stretches of years when the various areas in and around town became lakes and ponds again after having been wetland or even dry land for a previous stretch of years.

Post-WWII houses built in the neighborhoods that featured Michigan Basements were built on slab, which the oldsters looked askance at. However, looking back at those houses, they were built on land that had been raised about 4-6 feet above ground level and sat back from the sidewalk several feet -- so they had an exterior version of the MB's wall.

Just entering this in case this retro-tech might be useful again in times to come.

[Edit:] PS -- Just looked up 'Michigan basement' and found that these often began as unfinished crawl-spaces which, after the house was in use, were later dug deeper, but with their unique half-walls left intact. Descriptions say that even if dug deeper, they were often left unfinished, with earth walls and floors, but that some got a mud-or-concrete covering. Low ceilings and musty smells are often associated with these basements. However, the Michigan basements (grandparents & neighbors) that I saw in my childhood were not musty or low-ceilinged. I imagine now that at least the floor of my grandparent's basement was cemented, and the entire expanse was whitewashed every few summers, keeping it very clean and bright (windows) and not musty at all. In one corner, a wooden wall (with door) had been built to contain the coal deliveries, with the coal furnace right next to it. Canned goods were arrayed 4' deep on the ledge created by the short wall. In my childhood the basement also housed Grandma's old wringer-washer (with used water expelled down the sump-pump drain). Between the stairs up into the house and the stairs to the outside -- close to Grandpa's backyard garden and right nest to the stairs up to the driveway, where Grandpa would unload the full bushels that he trucked in from his big garden at the farm -- she kept her cunningly small and moveable woodstove, so she could do her canning in the relative cool of the basement, without heating up her kitchen.

The contractor's site I saw moments ago dealt with questions around how to turn a Michigan Basement into what would be considered 'modern' useable space. But it seems possible to me that a house with a crawl-space situated where there is a risk of a rising water table might be turned into a Michigan Basement, with perhaps more modern waterproofing technology incorporated to the 'retaining wall' aspect of the design (one contractor did credit the wall with 'reducing lateral pressure' around the footing.) Again, just FYI.

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Gerrit's picture

look it up. I think the old-timers had many, many hard-won wise techniques that got forgotten with "progress." Cheers,

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3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

is built atop a five cement block high crawl space. It has a dirt floor. Our water heater and pump, and our heating cooling systems are down there. We don't store down there for the reason cronewit stated. It can be damn and musty. To counter that, vents that open and close were built into cement block walls every so many feet. We close them in winter to keep the cold out, and open them in winter to help with air circulation. An oscillating fan can also be used to dry it up, but isn't the ideal solution. A floor would have been most helpful. It is definitely better than those crawl spaces that you literally have to crawl to get into. In ours, we can almost stand, and since it is sealed, we have no critters nesting or living under our house.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

and are they good for potable water? My local farm supply store has tanks up to 2500 gallons, polyethylene I think, for less than $1/gallon, which is the minimum price I've seen for tanks advertised for water storage. If the power goes out, so does the well pump, and we know how shaky our power system is. Up north here, there's freezing to consider, but a small unheated greenhouse over an aboveground tank has been suggested, and should work.

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Gerrit's picture

So far, I'm looking at small potatoes. I'm only looking for 250l or 275l totes for above-ground watering the vegies in the summer. That's um 66 or 73 gallons. I can get them used from one of the many dairy farms around us.

(BTW, some time soon I want to send out the laundry water too. We use only borax+washing soda and vinegar+essential oils for washing clothes. Not to mention the funky world of greywater refits.)

This is only for summer non-freezing temps use. When we eventually get to our hoped-for underground greenhouse, we'll be looking at year-round vegies and will need a buried cistern. Like you say, the best place for it is right underneath the greenhouse. And then careful consideration of RE sources for the pump.

And then there's the potable water options for drinking. That's where your larger buried cisterns would come in, eh. To draw potable water from the roof for that cistern would mean either a metal roof or a special coating on shingles. (I'm not sure I'd trust a coating.) And a filter system and a pumping system with RE options. So far, that's way out of my little bush league :=)

What all are you considering?
Thanks, mate!

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Recent crises have just been the sheep invading my little nut and small fruit plantings - clever creatures! And sheep gnawing mature apple tree bark in spring - sap rising or something? I don't know where the idea that they were stupid came from. But boy, can they do damage. Lots of fence fixing. I'm working up to hauling the young rams in for the freezer and hides. Gonna be hard, but it is necessary if I'm going to raise them.

My little barn/shed needs a new roof and I do want it to be metal. The sheep, chickens, barn cats, and mule need a minimum of 30 gallons of drinking water a day, add some for me and hot weather, and I think 50 gallons/day seems like what I should aim for. That's bottom line necessary even if there's no power to run the well pump, which would be a nightmare. They have to have water. The house roof and a shed roof could supply washing water etc for greywater. I'll be sure to get the big eaves troughs - thanks!

This area, southern Wisconsin, gets plenty of rain usually, but there have been drought years, months with no rain at all, and will probably be more and bigger ones in the future. One of the projections for this area was a similar yearly rain total, but wetter winters/springs and drier summers, which would mean a need to store possibly very large amounts of water.

I'm going to try a big coldframe for some greens this winter. Should be interesting.

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Gerrit's picture

those square totes would work well. And the metal roof. Best wishes for the project, eh. It's gonna owrk great for you.

We're seeing the same weather changes in Ontario as you are: hotter, drier summer, weird winters, and heavier rains in spring and fall. And stronger winds on more days. You're wise to get ahead with the water storage.

Too right about the sheep :=) As a kid I spent summer holidays on my great-uncle's sheep farm. Funny thing, reading your reply brought back all the smells! And now I'm enjoying the memories.

Let us know about the coldframe for winter. we'd like to hear about it as you go along with it.
cheers, my friend,

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Unfortunately, survival of the havoc from man made climate change, will present chaos, and anarchy that I'd rather not see. Couple that with air pollution, I wouldn't drink roof drain water unless I had a really high tech filter system. Heck! I live in rural Northern Lower Michigan, and many believe it unhealthy to eat snow!!. Imagine that reality in urban areas.

Kudos to all who choose to limit wasteful water consumption, and invest time, money and energy into greywater systems, locally, or homegrown foods, and minimal impact lifestyles. I grow a garden, harvest a deer, or two legally, buy locally, and try to reduce my food's carbon footprint as much as possible, but...unless there is an international effort made in curbing population growth, the giant meteor solution will be preferable to enduring the chaos that mankind has proven itself capable of.

I'm an architect, and have made a living as a homebuilder for over 35 years. I grew up on a modest dairy farm throughout the 50's and 60's. I believe the " Michigan Basement" evolved for other reasons than stated above, but I will do my research!! I tend to believe it was a combination of available resources; both labor and natural, ...necessity; to hold your house up, and keep critters out. The thick, sloped walls may be more a result of simple physics/ gravity/stability that accompany stacking stones, rocks, and boulders in a heap, and using minimally available cement mortar to hold them in place. In many areas of the world you will see stone walls, and fences that resemble the "Michigan Basement "model. Also consider the oldest remaining architecture...stone pyramids can be found around the world. ( humans like to get high!!) Michigan had lots of snow in days gone by, some areas still do. Lifting a house several feet above surrounding grade was another indigenous necessity for 4-6 months of the year, and since wood was ( is) the primary residential building material in forested regions, keeping the wood structure elevated and dry was critical. Here in Michigan we have dirt...diggable stuff, ( as opposed to bedrock) and a hole in the ground gave the stacked stone walls stability on one side, the sloped stack method gave structural resistance to the lateral forces of the earth pushing in on the foundation... And, since the space was largely kept dry, and stayed cool during summer months, opportunity beckoned, and voila! the Michigan Basement was born.

There!!;-) My long winded postulation on the evolution of a "Michigan Basement"/ stacked stone /rammed earth foundation system found in homes here in stone rich Michigan.

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Gerrit's picture

you sharing the knowledge.

I should do some research on the potability of rainwater in different regions. I don't know anything, except to worry in a "What Have They Done To The Rain?" kind of way. Given the climate apocalypse future we're living, it's knowledge we need.

It's a real privilege to hear from an architect/house builder who practices resilient living. Please help us think straight on how to make our homes and lives more resilient.
Cheers,

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Lily O Lady's picture

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Gerrit's picture

call them eavestroughs. (I really have no idea how to spell that :=) Here, apparently, gutters run only beneath streets. Go figure, eh.

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fall. They are troughs when they are funneling water. Actually, I trough and gutter are freely interchangeable.

Out of curiousity, Gerrit. What would you do with this. Decades ago, we hired a contractor to put in a well. After a series of fuck ups, we ended up with a 200' deep artesian well with a static level of 18' and discharging 500 gallons a minute. Thank god we were near the lake and could pipe the discharge into it. Today, it still is discharging some of the best arteisain well water at around 200 gallons a minute. Due to zoning, we never could bottle and sell it so we just let it flow back into Lake Huron.

We are tired of adding and subtracting pipe to get it to the shore as the lake rises and retreats The flow must not be impeded, so we hve to make sure the lake doesn't bury it. We contacted the Michigan Dept. of Environemental Equality and got a permit to let it run onto the beach. Neighbors will be pissed as the earths centrifigal force trails it down the beach, and we told DEQ they won't be happy. He said, so? It is only water. They recommend building a 3'x3'x3' pit, filling it up with pea gravel, and letting the water drain there before it meanders off. My guestions to you.

1. The overflow pipe is 4" reduced to 2". We can remove the 2" and return it to 4". Which will cause the least amount of erosion>

2. What do you think of the gravel pit? We think the wind and water will eventually fill up all the cracks with sand, and it will be as if it doesn't exist. Do you have a better idea?

Any other thoughts on what to do with this abundant blessing?

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Gerrit's picture

with a grain of salt, of course. And if smarter, more experienced folks have any advice, it sure would be welcome.

Question 2 first:
Most lakes, large and small, will give folks fits - with ever-increasing shifts in the shorelines as the weather gets wilder. In general, over time, many lakes - especially those in drier areas, will lose water and retreat. But there could and would be wild swings. The great lakes could lose huge volumes of water. So, any beach-oriented solution should start with the probability of increasing shoreline changes. So your piping length problems will increase.

We're (already) seeing an uptick in wind strengths. that will increase as the atmosphere becomes more unstable and changeable. Expect super storms and strong winds in non-traditional regions, such as the great lakes region. So long water pipe lines will need careful consideration.

I've seen and read about various natural filtration systems, but I'm no expert. I do think that one created on unstable terrain, such as beaches - especially in the climate era, would need ongoing maintenance. I do have loads of experience of wind-borne sand and it f*cks up everything.

I'd be just as reluctant as you are about their proposed gravel pit solution.

I have no clue about question 1. Where's AB when he's needed? :=) Strength of flow is a large factor in erosion. Going back to 4" would reduce the water pressure, one would think. Spread of flow is another factor in erosion and that depends on the land features.

Given your existing doubts and our climatic future, some brainstorming on alternative solutions would be a good idea. The obvious solution is to put it to use, but how? That depends on how often you or neighbours are there.
Could you share it? Joint projects with neighbours?
Charity? Containerize it and send it to Flint. Would that get around the zoning?

That's all I got. I hope others could expand on it in conversation. I'd really like to know the outcome :=)

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Tell me about lake fluctuation, particularly a Great Lake. No arguing with it.

Yesterday, my husband removed the last 20' of galvanized pipe we had added, which brought the end the discharge pipe to the water's edge. Now we have no more than 20" of 2" galvanized pipe left that was attached to the wells black pipe with an elbow to direct the water discharge up before out. When it was laying flat on the ground and discharging straight out, the water flow eroded the sand under the pipe hydroplaning it deeper and deeper into the lake bed impeding the flow. Phew is right.

The black pipe is where the original well installation ended. When we removed the last 20' pipe, it put us pretty much back to where it all started. All that is left attached to the black pipe is about 20" of galvanized pipe with an up elbow. Because of how much work it is to dig up all this pipe depending on what the lake has done to it, we decided we were done putting on and taking off pipe to protect the beach. It was fine when everyone was 35, but at 70, no way.

Right now, it is fine. The lake is up and the pipe is discharging just at the shore. With winter coming, the lake will likely continue to get wilder and rise taking away even more sand from around the end of the discharge pipe. We are going to leave it like this for winter and see what spring and next summer brings. If we have to call the MDEQ and/or a well man, so be it. We'll cross whatever bridge we have to then, but we are done putting on and taking off pipe. We feel like Johah and the well is the Whale.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Gerrit's picture

figure out a plan. Good luck, eh.

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can be a real pain! You are sure to be ahead of me on this one, but just out of curiosity, have you talked to a well guy recently? Seems to me my friend who owns a well business said something about some sort of system that avoids the surface flow. I live along the west side of the state and there are many flowing wells here too. It might be worth a call to your local well driller.
As far as the stone pit, You could put a layer of permeable landscape filter cloth over the stone to keep it from plugging with sand. Garage drain crocks are required to empty into a septic system if they are drained outside the foundation, so we use a crock set in the poured floor. I dig to good clean sand, and fill with sewer stone to a point above the bottom of the crock, put in a layer of filter cloth, and then more stone. If the drain plugs up with sediment, you just have a portion of the stone to remove, replace the filter cloth, and a small bucket of stone, and you're ready to go again.

Another alternative which I've had good success with for a grey water disposal system....A good quality plastic 33 gallon trash can can be had at Ace Hardware on sale for $10-15. Use a small hole saw ( 1") to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom, and part way up the sides of the trash receptacle. Dig your hole a foot or so over sized . Set the trash can in the hole, fill it with 1" sewer stone, and fill the remaining space outside the container with more stone. Put an elbow on the end of the line and cut a hole in the trash can lid for the elbow. Put the lid on. Bury it with a few inches of sand, or bark. Drain the discharge into this mini drywell, and no sand, leaves, grass etc, can get in. Hope these are reasonable suggestions DK

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Zenza's picture

North central AZ gets significantly more precipitation than much of the state, but nothing like the Philly area which is our birthplace. I use rainbarrels almost exclusively to water my veggies and fruit. I do use "city" water to mist crops as needed, but that takes very little water...it's meant to cool the ambient temps, not to irrigate. We are downsizing this winter and will take the barrels with us. Like much of the SW we tend to get our rain in bursts, so storage is necessary. We're growing food to eat and share, not sell, thus I use gravity, not pumps, to move the water. Sometimes I even use a bucket or watering can for the odd plant needing a boost,but that is rare. Planting stone fruit trees and berries near a wash mostly takes care of them. Apples also grow well here so I hope to add them to our crops at the new smaller place. We don't need leaf guards, but we do have the wider 6" rain gutters (eavestroughs) and 4" downspouts everywhere because of the nature of our rainfall and snow melt.

Edited thrice because I seem unable to form a coherent sentence...

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is illegal in some states!! I'm almost positive Colorado is one state where diversion/ collection of the water from your roof is forbidden as someone else owns the water rights. I'm not sure how stringently it is enforced, but it might be worth checking out before you start a new range war :-). At least keep it quiet until you find out!! Good luck with your new gardens and home.

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earthling1's picture

It's against the law to collect rainwater from your own roof.
To counter I would demand that the state stop dumping their damn water on my roof.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Zenza's picture

all we want. As bad as the governance can be here at least they know they don't own the precipitation falling on private property Smile as for the move...thx! Although we are merely moving around the corner, it's still much tougher than when we were younger. I was just now trying to figure out how to move some of the carefully nurtured organic soil from a few of my raised beds...

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Gerrit's picture

about leaves is something I could get used to. I'm going with gravity also for watering the garden. AB gave me some help with the math on load bearing for a platform for the totes (to be bought in the spring) to give gravity a bit of an assist. Where are you moving to? A suburb?

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Zenza's picture

We live in an unincorporated yet developed area of a mostly rural county near a few small towns. Our particular area has lot sizes that are small... about a quarter to a half acre right where we live although there are a few larger horse farms nearby and plenty of trails for hiking and beautiful open space. We like our neighbors and the relatively nearby amenities are adequate for us. I can walk into the village for basic needs and while there is no full service library, we do have a library service center where we can pick up and return library material ordered over the internet from any library in the county. There are also computers to use, a magazine swap area and an area for children to read, relax or do crafts. We like the four season climate and the "perfect" snow...it stays for a good time up in the mountains where we can enjoy gazing at it, but generally melts before noon on the streets, driveways and front walks...no need to shovel or plow or drive in it except when we head up north for some fun in it ( snowshoeing or cross country skiing in our case). Growing all the standard veggies and herbs here is no more difficult than it was back East except that there is not much soil so I have to use raised beds and gradually build up soil with our organic compost (thus my plan/desire to move some of the raised beds to the new house). Stone fruit and apple trees(with some initial coddling) and blackberries seem to do well in the native soil...The blackberries grow wild many places around here. Strawberries need raised beds and blueberries are basically a container plant here since our soil is not nearly acidic enough. I believe pecans are the only nuts that do well in this vicinity but I don't have room for that...buy them in a nearby town farmer's market. I grow sunflowers for the seed which I often sub for the nuts in pesto. We can't have chickens here although that may be changing. For now I swap heirloom tomatoes for eggs and organic chicken poop to rev up my compost. Tomatoes are my specialty and it does seem they are desired as many here claim they cannot get them to fruit in the sometimes intense heat. My one trick is to mist the plants at midday during any long dry spell with extreme daytime heat...something which would mean all sorts of disease in a wetter climate but it works for me here. The summer of 2015 was very wet(El Niño) so NO misting that year.
I'd love to hear more about other people's gardens....has anyone grown sesame?

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Gerrit's picture

unincorporated township when we finally/eventually/hopefully get to move to an acreage. We're inside a village at the moment, surrounded by dairy farms.

We love the same things about village life. Walk to the library - the miracle of interlibrary loans! And the Post Office. And the hardware store. We walk our dog into the countryside. We lived in a village when our kids were small and enjoyed the library same way you did. Our kids are literate and readers today, thanks to libraries across Canada :=)

Yes, you'd needs lots of organic soil buildup in your area. We work at our soil too, even though it's good stuff. Old manure every year, rotating crops, lots of mulch from the chipper every spring and fall, and so forth. We have sunflower "weeds" that volunteer everywhere among the vegies :=) I put in some perennial sunflowers in the flower beds this spring. They're doing fine - petite, so far, but lovely flowers - and I look forward to see how they come back next year. That's interesting - sunflower seeds for pesto. We grow them everywhere for attracting the gardening "air force" - all the birds and bees :=) But that's a good thought; Lovie and the girls make pesto regularly.
It's nice to hear about good blackberries - love them. Maybe grow a pine tree somewhere to help with soil acidity for blueberries? I tend to overwater the tomatoes, sigh. We grow three Quebec short-season varieties -a grape, a cherry, and a medium size.

We started talking Resilience in the spring and regularly talked gardening until I broke for the summer to pay attention to the garden and the kids stuff. (Our son graduated college and moved to Ireland to further his studies.) We should talk more gardening next: some harvest and post-harvest topics, eh?

Growing sesame? Like Manuel in the hotel, "I know nuuuuttting." Anyone else know how?

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

riverlover's picture

Only two years, I think the guards were moved off for re-shingling and flashing, but not positive. They still suggest power washing the gaps, not sure how that is supposed to be accomplished 2-3 stories off the ground. But loads of leaves here, still dealing with last falls' and here we go again. Too droughty here to get good decay and my lawns always collect oak leaves after I have given up. Very hard for one person, esp like me with some handicap issues now.

I fell 5 weeks ago and got a concussion from a subarachnoid bleed (look that up if you want to be scared). But I do have a battery-powered leaf blower. And 4 batteries. But i never cut my weed collection this entire summer, TG it's mostly goldenrod and beginning to bloom. I wanted to do garbage can water catchers under two long runs, but it never got done except for getting more Rubbermaid cans and lids with holes. Some re-working of gutters will be needed.

Eyeballing says the base of gutter width is 4".

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Gerrit's picture

problem ever is the 50-year Stanley Cup drought in Toronto hockey :=)

I hear you on the fall. I have some mobility issues now too and I fell off the danged ladder cleaning out leaves two years ago and ended up with concussion too. You be careful now. I wasn't comfortable about the ladder and hired a local contractor for the eavestrough installation. Watching the young blokes scamper up and down and doing a good, fast job, I was real glad I did.

Those nifty metal mesh leaf guards can be retrofitted. RL, I'd recommend it for your leafy surroundings. It would spare you a lot of hassle and protect your health too. Four inch troughs are all right; all you need is the nifty leaf guard. Our contractor said they'd install rain barrels too if we wanted. But I want a bigger size than a regular barrel.

Good luck and take care of yourself. Bleeding in the skull is so not good!
Best wishes, g

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Hawkfish's picture

(For some reason, my iPad just spell checked rain => Iran in the subject. Creepy.)

About 10 years ago, MIT's Kerry Emanuel started looking at the impact of climate disruption on hurricanes. The projection was that while storms would become more intense, they would also become rarer due to increased wind shear caused by new large scale temperature gradients. The unanswered question was how will heat get redistributed from the tropics if hurricanes can no longer do the job? The heat has to go somewhere.

The answer now appears to be new weather phenomena like rain bombs. At the height of NH hurricane season, it may seem strange to point out that hurricanes are preferable to the new weather types, but at least they are organized and trackable over long distances. Rain bombs are more chaotic and unpredictable, and therefore arguably even worse than hurricanes.

BTW, Emanuel is a republican, but he has no patience with the GOPs insane denial of empirical reality...

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Gerrit's picture

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Raggedy Ann's picture

late. RAndy and I capture almost 4000 gallons in our tanks (two=1650 each;7=55gal each) and we purchased three-275 gal totes this summer to store more. We need to gutter our shop and barn, which would up our capacity to about 8000 gallons, and then re-gutter different areas of the house with the water going into larger vessels. We'd like to gather about 20,000 gallons in due time and have the roof capacity (house+outbuildings) to accomplish it.

Great essay to start with! Good

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Gerrit's picture

of water storage in the works; up from the 4k you already have.

Is it all for the garden or is some of it potable? I'd like to learn more about rooftop potable water: roofing material, filtration systems, etc.

Best wishes to RAndy.
Cheers, my friend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Raggedy Ann's picture

We use the water for trees, flowers, garden, and to supplement house water. Our house well is drying up, thanks to the dairy farmers across the road and those that have infiltrated our high desert valley, growing water thirsty field corn and alfalfa, which has put many household wells at risk here. If the public knew the actual high cost to produce one gallon of milk, the dairy farmers would go under. Dairy is not good for us anyway, which is why I consume very little.

We purchase our drinking/cooking water, which is only $1/5gallons. If/when we will need to drink this water, we will need a better filtration system coming into the house. What we have now is fine for washing, bathing, etc., but future needs will dictate a cleaner delivery system.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Gerrit's picture

common situation. Most of industrial agriculture is in fact criminal if our democratic oversight and judicial systems would only look. But they're paid not to look, aren't they?

I'd love to hear your and R.Andy's thoughts on how to make rainwater potable for when needed in the future. For it will be needed, sadly.

I'm learning about dairy and health. We're vegetarians and my family mostly avoids dairy. I put a bit of milk on porridge and in coffee. And I use about two table-spoons of butter a day and a cup of yoghourt with probiotics. Sigh, I think the yoghourt is a scam...Any advice on dairy alternatives you have would be appreciated. My family use soya and almond milk. (I've tried to tell them about the CA water table!) Let us know what you do, eh? Cheers,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

earthling1's picture

(Almond Breeze Original).
However, almonds require an enormous amount of water to grow.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.