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Water Entries

Our Cistern Shed Gets Plastered

Friday, June 17th, 2016

Today is a whirlwind of activity on the homestead as Chad and Liz prep their crew for plastering. First in line: our cistern shed. Carly tapes off the trim, while Liz and Camille sift sand and mix plaster. I pitch in to collect buckets, make a wash...

Preparing the Cistern Shed for a Plastering Crew

Saturday, May 21st, 2016

The plastering crew who will be putting the final coat on the inside of the workshop is also going to finish the outside of our cottage and cistern shed. Since the cistern shed isn't plastered at all, we need to get at least one coat done before th...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter, Part Five: Small Victories

Monday, December 28th, 2015

As I was washing dishes today, our water pump kicked on, drawing from the cistern outside to fill a pressure tank under our counter. For the first time this winter, instead of making the usual buzzing noise, it began vibrating with a deeper, stutte...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part Four

Saturday, October 17th, 2015

The final major part of our cistern shed (besides the plastering, which we'll do next year) was the doors. I spent a few days this week making these massive things, consisting of a simple frame and a double layer of rigid foam insulation. Other tha...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part Three

Saturday, October 10th, 2015

This weekend, Tara and I experimented with two types of insulation we'd never used before. The first was blown cellulose, which we dense packed into the cavities between the wall studs of our cistern shed. In order to do this, we had to rent a blow...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part Two

Monday, October 5th, 2015

In the previous entry, I mentioned one of the main issues with our above-ground cistern: the short pipe between our house and the water supply freezing. I believe I have found a solution to the problem: heatline. It's like heat tape (electric wire ...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part One

Monday, October 5th, 2015

Last fall, I wrote about the water situation for our cottage, documenting why we have an above-ground cistern next to the house rather than a water line from our well. When I wrote the entry, I was building an insulated shed for our water storage, ...

Shallow Frost Protected Water Line

Saturday, July 4th, 2015

A few weeks ago, our neighbor Justin dug a pair of trenches to our workshop: one from our solar shed (for electricity), and another from our well (for water). The depth of the trenches varies from about three to five feet thanks to all the ledge on...

Hot Running Water

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

After having lived without hot running water on and off for four years or so, I am convinced that it is life's greatest luxury, with a washing machine coming a close second. It transforms a life of labor to a life of comfort. When I think about all...

Off Grid Above Ground Water Storage

Saturday, October 4th, 2014

Tyler: There is a drilled well on our land, and a large clearing next to it. This area is obviously where the previous owners had planned to build a home—it is also one of the few places on our property that gets a good deal of sun. Rather than b...

Heat & Water

Saturday, July 26th, 2014

Today, I arranged a meeting with a master gas fitter to see about hooking up a propane regulator on the outside of the cottage. Our current plan is to run our oven and on-demand hot water heater with a pair of 40lb tanks. Someday it would be nice ...

Installing a "Simple Pump" Well Pump: Part Two

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

After our friends have gone home, I head out into the darkness to put our tools away. Outside, the cleanup operation is quickly cut short when I survey the back of our truck. We're just four little screws away from fresh mountain water—with so li...

Installing a "Simple Pump" Well Pump: Part One

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Today, with the help of our new friends Jeremy & Hercilia, we're going to install a hand-powered Simple Pump in our well. This will be the first time any of us has ever worked on a well, and it will also be the first time I've ever read and fo...

About Our Well

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Our property was one of the only potential sites we visited during our land hunt which already had a drilled well. Its standard 6" casing was a whopping 400ft deep, it had a static level of 80ft, and a measured recovery rate of 2 gallons per minut...