[Steph Hen]

I’m into divining too, though not expert have found lots of underground drains and waterways ;-)

[oor wullie]

Re [member=25668]oor wullie[/member]  - I built a house in Aberdeenshire in 2005.  Before I could start even breaking ground, I had to show that I had a suitable potable water supply for the size of house I was building(4 bed).  That was a calculation done by Aberdeenshire Council.  They sent me a letter stating what the minimum flow rate had to be and if there wasn't enough I wouldn't have been able to build

I had to have paperwork right down the line!

Yes, I did too (I had to use a private company and submit the results to Highland Council before I was allowed to start building) but that's part of the plannig permission for building a house not the water source.

You need a water source before you build a house but you don't need a house (or anything else) before you create a (small) water source.

[Fleecewife]

So here's a thought... you have a stream 1/4 mile away - does it have a good flow?  If so, you're gonna need a few hosepipes, a couple of breeze blocks or decent stones (to hold the end under the water but not on the bottom) and a bilge pump (you can get a hand pump for about £20, electric ones a bit more. 

Switch the potable water to bottled for now (and you can fill them up from any number of places with a potable water supply - friends, neighbours, the local swimming baths or village shop etc - I'm sure you'll find someone willing to help you out locally) and aim to get the well cleaned out once the current issue looks like it's going to resolve (but before the water table starts to rise so you're not wasting too much water).

You can pump water from the stream to the well for now which will work for the livestock and veggies, also giving you water for flushing and bathing.

The other alternative is an IBC on a trailer or a proper bowser, drive to the stream fill up and drive back again.  An IBC weighs a tonne if filled to to the top.

Unfortunately the nearby stream does not have a good flow - the source spring is in the next field so it is as vulnerable as we are. It's also where our neighbour's cattle and sheep drink so we could not deplete it further.
The good news is that it's due to rain at the coming weekend, not heavy rain so it won't reach the well, but we can increase our captured rainwater stocks enough to flush 

Our son went shopping for bottled water in Edinburgh yesterday - in the shops he tried, there is none    So it seems to be a more widespread problem than we had thought.

[doganjo]

Have you tried Scottish Water?  You never know they may give you enough to keep you going

If you can drive up here you can fill as many containers as you like.  I have a few empty plastic bottles here.

[Fleecewife]

Have you tried Scottish Water?  You never know they may give you enough to keep you going

If you can drive up here you can fill as many containers as you like.  I have a few empty plastic bottles here.

That's really kind of you to offer Annie     I hope it doesn't come to that, but this question is all about 'what if' so I shall bear your kindness in mind 

[Anke]

Hi, we are on mains and unmetered, so if you do get desperate and have containers, you can come and fill up here. Do you have an empty IBC that fits onto a trailer?

[Fleecewife]

Hi, we are on mains and unmetered, so if you do get desperate and have containers, you can come and fill up here. Do you have an empty IBC that fits onto a trailer?

That's very kind of you too Anke, thank you    We have an empty 1,000 litre black barrel, but it's size is vertical so it would not be safe on our sheep trailer.  I have been looking at the little tanks that lie on a small purpose built trailer, but there's no point investing in something like that if we go for a new bore hole, or even dredging the well.
I'm married to a procrastinator so we end up living by chaos management, everything at the last minute, when we could have been prepared  .  I shall pursue research after the rain returns, with allowances for climate change and see what the finances allow.

[Fleecewife]

[member=23925]chrismahon[/member] what did you mean by the bottled water would go off?  Does it absorb chemicals from the plastic or is there another reason?

[chrismahon]

The bottled water bought from the shop should be fine. We store ours away from sunlight though as a precaution. However if you bottle tap water it does contain bacteria which, as the chlorine comes out, will multiply. Stored tap water needs the addition of tablets to keep it safe to drink. I came across cases when plumbing, of pipework becoming contaminated because they hadn't been used. The solution is either a chlorine flush or replacing the pipes.


There was a post recently talking about tap water going green in storage, so clearly there are impurities in it. I know that all tap water contains Legionella. How long it takes for water to go 'off' will depend on the stored temperature I suppose.

[SallyintNorth]

Hopefully you will need none of these options, Fleecewife!  But it's good to be prepared

I thought I might share some water-saving tips from my time living off-grid, when all the water I had at my little hovel was hand-carried.  (Only about five hundred yards, and flat ground, but even so.)

1.  Reuse the water in the hot water bottles.  (Which I still do, as a way of saving water and the processing of water, especially when on a mains supply.)

2.  Freshen self using a hot flannel.  You can give yourself quite a good freshen up with just half a mug of hot water.  Add a slice of lemon to the water for an extra clean feel.

3.  Wipe plates with kitchen roll after using and discard paper when too soiled to reuse.  (Or burn on the woodstove; any fats in the food make it good for starting the fire!  lol.)  Leave the crocks and cutlery in used water for a soak before doing the washing up.  When the soak water is too contaminated to be used for more soaking, it can be used for flushing the loo.  Use minimal amounts of once-used water to wash up, then a tiny bit of clean (hot is best) to rinse off.  (And collect rinsings for re-use.) 

4.  Set up a compost loo for wee.  A bucket and some sawdust is all you really need!  Have a wee, add a small handful of sawdust.  If you get the balance right, it doesn't smell, and of course it's a great addition to the garden compost.  If squatting over a bucket isn't appealing, you can make a seat by cutting a hole in the seat of a chair, or, for more comfort and easier cleaning, get a Kampa Khazi, which is like a regular loo to sit on (the King Khazi is the same height as a regular loo) but has a lidded bucket inside.


I had no plumbing at all, but had I had a flushing loo I would of course have flushed only when there were solids, and saved any and all used ("grey") water (no longer suitable for anything else) for flushing.  Paper used for wiping after just a wee into a bin not the loo pan will reduce the need for flushing too.  I guess you could also use a lidded bucket for wee, and instead of adding sawdust, then use the wee to help flush when needed.

Another option for reducing the need to flush is Popaloo bags.  Poop into that, tie securely, leave it to work and then put it in the household rubbish.  I use them when wild camping (or using sites with no loos) when digging a hole and burying isn't the best option.  (Eg., during a pandemic, when no-one is sure if poop can carry the virus...)

[Fleecewife]

The bottled water bought from the shop should be fine. We store ours away from sunlight though as a precaution. However if you bottle tap water it does contain bacteria which, as the chlorine comes out, will multiply. Stored tap water needs the addition of tablets to keep it safe to drink. I came across cases when plumbing, of pipework becoming contaminated because they hadn't been used. The solution is either a chlorine flush or replacing the pipes.


There was a post recently talking about tap water going green in storage, so clearly there are impurities in it. I know that all tap water contains Legionella. How long it takes for water to go 'off' will depend on the stored temperature I suppose.

Actually bottled water often does contain bacteria in low amounts - it's only when it passes a certain limit that something has to be done by the bottlers 
I understand now what you mean by going off. Our water although it comes from a well, passes through both a physical filter and a UV filter, but there are some pipes to traverse too, although they are fairly new.
So I'll bear all that in mind, thank you 


I grew up on a farm in the '50s and we had our own water supply.  Water was pumped up from a deep well into a giant metal tank on stilts at the end of the house.  This was open to the elements, so every now and then a dead bird or dead mouse would come with much spluttering from the tap into the kitchen sink.  We would all 'errgh' and 'aargh' then carry on drinking the water     
Eventually we got the mains but water never tasted quite the same again 

[Fleecewife]

That's a brilliant list thank you Sally  .  My mother was something of a health and fitness freak during WW2 and had an all over wash in icy water plus a flannel every morning, summer and winter.  I am perfectly happy washing rather than showering for a day or two but then really a quick shower becomes essential 
We reuse water for at risk plants in the garden, but hot water bottles are truly not needed during this heatwave, cold water bottles maybe  . Actually we don't use water bottles any more after OH's burst one night on MY side of the bed and I was the one who had to deal with sleeping in a large puddle 


There will be 11 of us tomorrow, mostly boys and men, so they can find a nettle patch to water. Ladies can use the loos but with shared flushing.  Everyone is up for it. For just the day it will be fun.


We'll have a look in the well after all that and see how we're getting by.

[Fleecewife]

At last SEPA has caught on to the impending water shortage here in Scotland and is asking people to go easy on their water usage in the SW and northern parts of the country.


Here we have had some rain, with more forecast.  Never as much as is expected falls, not enough to do much to the water table or even reach it.  We have had none of the electrical storms and flooding that parts of the country have experienced.


Our garden pond full of koi is nearly a foot below its normal level - this time last year we had heavy rains and the pond was actually overflowing! We have installed a good water filter system so the fish are perfectly happy in their reduced volume.


Mr F still doesn't think a borehole is necessary or justifies the expense, but I do. Two stubborn minds, two different ideas of priority 

[SallyintNorth]

Buy him "Jeanne de Florette" to read   (Or get the film if he's more that way inclined.) 

[arobwk]

In the event, plenty of water falling out of the heavens here:  yes, some repeatedly dry, unbearably hot (often muggy) days recently, but no drought so far down here.