Water works

Since we were going to Nanaimo anyway, even though we were expecting our water card to come via Canada Post - just in case they sent something by email and we could load up, plus we needed to organize the hose situation and having the buckets would be helpful for sizing appropriately, etc. 

Just as well as it turns out, while Brad was in getting the hose sorted I was looking for the locations of the water filling stations and discovered that, in fact, you are supposed to pick up the cards from the office. Duh. Since we were around the corner, we popped by and sure enough got the card. 

However, the software to install $$$ onto the card only operates on FireFox, and when trying to install FireFox on the iPad I learned that it also only operates on iOS 11.5 or higher.... I hate that! Anyway, I installed it on the iPhone and managed to load the $$$ onto the card - even though the screen was super enlarged (desktop size) and I was on my iPhone, the very left side of the spots to enter the info were visible and so I gave it a go. It worked. 

The hose and attachments are 2 inch and so the filling of both buckets (IBC totes) took about 5 minutes total, maybe 6. Then we were off home.

We started in the garden, filling our 4 - 55 Gal barrels.

Didn't take long to load them and used about 2/3 of the first bucket

Cistern 

We then brought the truck around and through the front door put the remaining 1 1/3 buckets into the cistern.

I measured the cistern beforehand = 30", and again after adding the 1 1/3 buckets = 32". Pretty good I'd say as we use - on average, 2" a week.

Now, remember last fall when we bought 2 matching paddleboards? Well, I don't need 2 and Brad's injuries do not allow him to use one so when Stacey said she knew someone looking for 1 for his wife.... no problem, I sold him the larger of the 2. He was thrilled as he'd been looking at some of the same ones for $1700!!! 

The funds from the paddleboard sale covered the entire water operation. 2 IBC totes, 2 camlock hoses (total 50 ft) and $50 on the prepaid water card.

The charge for water is $16 per 1000 US Gallons. Our 2 totes hold roughly 500 US Gallons total, so about $8 per load. 

Now while I think it's absolutely ridiculous and insulting to make people pay for water which is a requirement of life -- given that they do make people pay for it, this is a good system for us.

We will continue our usual water conservation but as its been a dry spring so far, we wanted to ensure we have what we need - or can get it.

Water and Corn

I mentioned in a previous post that its been a very dry spring here. With our cistern getting uncomfortably low even with all of our water conservation efforts, we decided to be proactive and take measures to ensure we can meet our needs. 

There is a place in Nanaimo where you can purchase water for something like $16 for 1000 gallons, there is an application process for that and we have applied and should hear sometime this week. Regardless, we hope to be able to find purchasable water somewhere but either way, you need something to put it in.

On Facebook Marketplace we found some water totes. They were previously used for simple syrup (sugar water used in things like Tim Horton's Ice Caps and other cold drinks, so they are food grade and many many people use them for water, especially gardens but even to store for their own home use. 

We arranged to buy one and then decided enroute that 2 would be simpler as we could reload quicker and then just pump one from the truck to one in the garden. They have an intake on the top and a spigot on the bottom so they are perfect for this application.

2 water totes for water storage (naturally, as I type this it is raining...)

Our corn has been put in finally. These are sweet corn, the POPcorn is still sprouting in the greenhouse.

Our landlord put his corn in just a few feet from ours. 

It will be interesting to see the difference as the summer progresses between ground cover with soaker hose and 'free range' corn.

 

Water catchment calculations

Its been a dry spring here in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia this year which we're told is unusual, however it has taught me a few things about our water catchment system.

We have 3 roofs catching water and diverting it to our approximately 10ft x 30ft x 5ft cistern. 

*All numbers are approximate. Note: ' ~' means 'about'. 

The main house roof square footprint = 750 sq ft.

The cottage house roof square footprint = 300 sq ft. (has its own well and does not use cistern)

The wood shed roof square footprint = 100 sq ft.

Total = 1150 sq ft

When you check the weather (in Canada) they say rainfall in mm. It will rain ~1mm, 1-3mm, 5-10mm, etc.. but how is that calculated? Turns out this is how much rain will fall per square yard. Note: These are both in different measurement types.... Metric and Imperial, of course.

Because of my age I 'think' most things in Imperial (inches) but some things in Metric (kilometers) Canada switched to metric in 1975 according to Google but I remember it happening around 1983... probably because we moved back and forth to England so often when I was a kid. But I digress...

So it turns out 1 inch of rain = 1.56 Gallons of water per square foot.   

This means that our 1,150 sq ft of water collecting roof gives us 1,794 Gallons per inch of rain or 72 Gallons per mm. For perspective, an oil drum holds 55 gallons. We get our rainfall in mm, there are 25mm per inch and as a general rule when it rains it is usually ~1mm or 1-3mm and far less often 5-10mm. In our neck of the woods our average rainfall is around 37 inches per year mostly spring, fall and winter with generally zero rain in July.

Our cistern holds roughly 12,000 U.S. Gallons which requires 6.67 inches of rainfall from our roof.

Now I have always been known for my baths, I shower every morning for washing and bath every night for relaxing -- or at least I did before we left to go #RVLife and now in BC with water shortages - in summer I limit myself to 2 baths per week.

The clawfoot tub holds around 32 Gallons without a person in it and in the 'off season' ie summer we have shallower baths so I guesstimate about 10 gallons per bath, or 20 gallons per week. 

The rainfall requirements for my baths therefore is 1mm per month.

Our cistern is lower at the moment than it was this time last year. I monitor the water level each week on a spreadsheet so we know what to expect. When we moved in May 16th it was 43 inches. Last Monday it was 34.5 inches, we did have a fair bit of rain this week and I checked it around Friday and it was at 36 inches, we've even had a bit of rain since then. I just checked the weather history and we had 4.9mm last week. so about 1/5 inch. Today before we leave for Nanaimo I will check it again and record it. 

I'm tracking this info mostly so that if we build a house again in future we will know:

a) how much water we use     b) how big a cistern we require to be comfortable

External cisterns

I note that lots of houses around this area have external cisterns, usually 2 or 3 that hold 1,500-2,500 Gallons... we'd need at least 15,000 stored Gallons in order not to have to worry about water,  so I don't know how people manage with that - often with just a small house roof footprint too. It seems its not so much a water shortage situation out here as it is a catchment holding shortage.

According to Google the typical family of 4 uses 12,000 Gallons per month, so 6,000 Gallons for a couple. The trick is to collect enough in the wet months to hold you over during the dry months.

Doctors, Critters and Projects

So, since this thyroid issue popped up I have put on what can only be described as -- well, fat. I've gained about 10 lbs that won't go away, mostly around the middle. Because the thyroid controls the metabolism, when the thyroid stopped working the weight added up, and quarantine didn't help. Well, I think they have me more or less back to 'normal' now but the metabolism is still too low and the weight is still on.

Last friday we went to Salt Spring for Brad's 1st weekly massage for months and while there, I went to the hospital to give some blood for the Endocrinologist that I have an appointment with this coming Friday...

Today we both have appointments with our family doctor, great kid (LOL - he's my oldest son's age). I have a lot of things to tell him about, all of which I assume are related to the thyroid issue but since I do not generally make good medical decisions - I will let him be the judge, however I know there is a painful squeezy machine in my future. Perhaps its just old age and my body is falling apart - that is an option, not one I like to consider, but an option nonetheless.

A couple of days ago I pulled out the sewing machine. Some curtains I put up a few weeks ago were too long and it was making me crazy in the head -- okay, so I was already crazy in the head -- but that is beside the point. I shortened the curtains and then went to my closet.

Brad has many, many old grubby T-shirts that he refuses to get rid of (he is a T-shirt hoarder ;D) so I convinced him to part with one and proceeded to cut it up in to 2 inch strips. I then gathered a bunch of my T-shirts and proceeded to cut the seams and sew in a 2 inch strip on each side. This will give me something to wear that will be a little more comfortable in the short term and WHEN this weight comes off, I can just cut out the strips and sew the shirt closed, no one will know the difference.

I then went online and ordered some (hopefully) better fitting clothes. No indication as to when they will arrive. Never bought clothes online before and I'm very concerned about the fit.

Our garden is coming along well, although the slugs out here are a significant problem. Sage green with black spots and solid black slugs are everywhere. They love my romaine and broccoli especially. I have found a solution though - COFFEE. I make a spray bottle of instant coffee and spray it on all the leaves after each rain (still raining a lot out here). I didn't spray the potatoes the first night because they hadn't been near them but when they couldn't get at anything else they attacked the potatoes and so now everything gets a spritz of coffee and they are leaving the garden alone.

We had something else attacking our garden and I was sure it was rabbits but the landlord assures us there haven't been any rabbits around here since he ate the last one a long time ago... Then we discovered the Otters, yup Otters. I was sitting on the deck one day and this massive rat ran across the orchard. I only caught a quick look at it and having never seen an otter out of water before I didn't know what the hell it was. Brad thought it was a rat when I described it to him and I assured him that if that was a rat - we were moving! Then a quick google search and I recognized the culprit, however they (family of 4 - we have since learned) don't seem to be bothering the garden. I saw one climb into the cherry tree in the garden once but that was it.

The zipper I ordered for Robbie's bed cover finally arrived (4 weeks from Guelph Ontario) so I also did that while I had the sewing machine out.

Yesterday, the magnet screen I had ordered for the french door arrived and I promptly set about putting that up, it is ordered to measure and this one (unlike a previous one I picked up) not only fits precisely but is a sturdy good quality one. We also replaced the door handle and deadbolt on the back door as it completely failed the other day.

Our neighbour and newest friend, Kane, gave us a housewarming gift, as we had mentioned that we like the one he has on his cabin. So Brad set about setting it up at the front door.

Because we are on a cistern, and this is new to us, we check our water level each Monday. Our cistern is pretty big, 30ft x 10ft and 63in deep. This allows for a total of 9810.42 Gallons (yes, I have a spread sheet so we can follow it and know what to expect next year). When we moved in the water level was 42.5 inches, and this past Monday it was sitting at 42 inches (6540.28 Gallons). We've had a lot of rain since we moved here so the water catchment has been keeping us in water, however the sun will eventually come out... so we are taking precautions (I think I explained this in another post) but essentially and especially because we have a lot of flowers to keep watered we are using water preservation methods...

My bath water is pumped from the upstairs bathroom via this green garden hose in to this 55 Gal bucket between the house and the wood shed using a pump we purchased. This water is then used in the front garden. Because my bath ritual is for relaxation and not cleansing (I shower in the mornings for that), there is no soap in this water and it can also be pumped back in to the cistern and recycled through the 3 filters on the system allowing us to reuse it - should that become necessary.

We also do this in the shower, we have a pail in the (very large) shower that we use to catch the water that would otherwise be wasted while setting the temperature of the water and getting ourselves wet. The bucket is then moved out of the way for the lather and rinse, it is strictly for fresh water. It sounds like a lot of effort, but it really isn't. If the shower was a standard shower stall it would be much more awkward but our shower is about 6ft deep and 3ft wide so there is plenty of room. This water is then taken out the back door where I have another 55 Gallon bucket for watering the flowers along the side of the house and the garden we have on the deck.

Because the weather has been so bad and the slugs were such a problem and given that the romaine is generally not doing so well in the garden (Quail have also pulled it out of the ground while 'dusting' themselves - don't ask me, I've no idea)... we decided to plant the rest of our romaine, carrot and dill starts in planters on the deck where we can better monitor and control it. We also have 4 strawberry pots and a massive tomatoe plant that I think I mentioned before in a previous post.

Because I know someone is likely to ask, yes we can have water delivered should our cistern run dry at a cost of about $300 for something like 4000Gal. However, no one wants to have to do that so we are challenging ourselves to see how much water we can conserve. We're retired and unemployed so its something to do... LOL