The rains are coming

 As you know we are on a cistern here and the rain water from the roof of the house, woodshed and guest house all collects and runs into said cistern. Except when the pipes aren't connected...

We noticed ages ago that half of the guest house roof was not running in to the cistern because there was a piece of pipe missing, so yesterday Brad went up the ladder with some extra pipe that we found laying around the property to correct the issue.

For several days now, I have been checking around the property to make sure that everything 'summer' has been put away (rakes, etc.) so they are not in the way and are properly protected from flying around in any storms which may crop up. Garden implements have been oiled so as not to rust over the winter and the deck has had a general tidy up, although more will be done before Monday when the rains are due to begin. 

'They' tell us to expect over 30mm (1.2") in the next 2 weeks. We have already determined that a rain of approximately 3mm gives us an extra 2" of water in the cistern. I still think of rain in inches although the Canadian standard was changed in the 80's to metric - this mm business is gibberish to me.

Our cistern is 10ft x 30ft and 63" high. When we moved in May 16th the cistern was at 43". We check the level every Monday as we have never dealt with a cistern before and didn't know what to expect. Turns out we use an average of 2" (174 US Gallons) per week - at least in the summer. As of last Monday it sits at 24.5".

Keep in mind that we have been catching our shower and bath water for use in the flower beds. Turned out to be a good save or we would surely have run out of water with all the flowers we have put around the place this year.

Not sure what to expect in the winter, but we know it will rain A LOT, now what that will mean for my evening bath ratio (I've been keeping to 2-3 per week to conserve water) but hope to manage 4-5 or more in winter with all the rain that we should be collecting.

Incidentally, I know people get weird about water collection from the roof due to bird poop etc., but I've been watching the roofs and I can assure you the birds are too busy (at least here on the orchard) in the trees and do not go on the roof so other than a bit of dust from the road there really isn't anything up there - unlike our house on the East coast.

So today and tomorrow will be spent (other than canning more tomatoes) ensuring the property is ready for winter. With that much rain starting Monday and the weather guessers (yep, stole that) calling for an El Nina winter, it seems there won't be much basking in the sun going on anymore this year.

On to Christmas...