The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Susie on June 25, 2010, 10:33:27 pm
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:wave: Hi everyone,
I would really appreciate some advice on the best way to provide water for our land. :-\ We need enough for 20ish sheep, a few weaners, a house cow and calf, chickens, and loads of veggies, fruit bushes and 2 huge polytunnels. (We have barely any of this yet but that's the long term plan).
Option 1: connection to the mains. cost £2k plus metered billing. Our least favourite option as we wanted to have our own supply with no ongoing bills.
Option 2: a borehole. The water dowser man has found water in one of the fields. We'd need a borehole 140ft deep and we would want to add a special hand pump that we've seen in the US (as we have no electric at the moment) to get the water pumped to the surface. Pump costs £1k. I've been getting quotes for the borehole and they range from £4.5k to nearly £10k! No idea why the prices are so different as they both seem to include the same things in the quote.
Option 3: ????? We'd really love a borehole but its just so expensive I don't think we can do it. Does anyone have any other ideas? We are building a pole barn so I was wondering if we could collect rainwater and store it in tanks(?) ready for use for the animals and to water the veggies in very dry weather? Obviously won't work right now as it hasn't rained for ages but if we get the barn ready for autumn and collect rain all winter would there be enough for our needs next spring when we start getting the animals? There are also two very small streams on the land as well that normally provided water for the sheep that the last people had there, but they dried up last month - much earlier than usual apparently.
We don't live on our land so can bring water from home if we needed to as well.
If anyone has any ideas to stop me stressing about this that'd be great! Thanks. ;D
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I have 4 large water butts which collect water from the stable and 2 sheds. This is enough for 80+ birds, watering plants etc in all but the dryest weather. I think if I had a couple of 1000 litre tanks for the overflow I'd have MORE than enough.
You can buy the tanks on Ebay for around £40 - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ibc-tank-water-tank-water-bowser-rain-water-storage-/190408654211?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Home_Garden_GardenEquipment_HandTools_SM&hash=item2c553d7d83
If you can collect water from your barn roof and store it in these you'd have plenty of water all year round. You could connect this to some kind of irrigation system and to your water troughs as long as the tanks are at a higher level than what you want to fill and although you'd have to do a lot of things manually (to avoid unnecessary waste) it'd cost you a lot less than the other options.
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That's fantastic. Thank you - love the idea of the irrigation system too. ;D
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I am not quite sure You must check You need Black Poly ex fruit juice tanks for that purpose the white self colour ones the water goes green in them which doesn't matter for irrigation or mine didn't ??? :D :farmer:
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Its only a bit of algae... I bet if you painted the outsides it'd block the sunlight and have the same effect. Wouldn't bother me though, think of the extra nutrients
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Just a word of caution, as with all stored water - watch out for Legionella - especially if children are around.
Thanks
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Ohhh ! Sam I don't think you should drink it not without adding a couple of Chlorine Tablets.Then it tastes orribull :D :wave: :farmer:That might be the final wave as well ;D
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Our local agricultural store has started selling covers for the big 1000 litre tanks - they fit right over the top with a hole for the down pipe and keep all the sunlight out ... very clever! :)
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I bet they are not as good value as your £300 + is Lucy With luck that job will last many years Good idea though :farmer: :D