potential new homestead.

So I've found a 63 acre property with river access (~200ft of river frontage). The average river discharge is 1490 cu ft/s (~11k gal/s). The river is running right around 644ft above sea level and I would like to be able to store water from the river.

There are two options:
-Half acre about 1k ft away and 110 ft above the river is relatively flat.
-~5 acres a little over 2k ft away and 188ft above the river is also relatively flat.

If I can get the water to the furthest location, I would have no problem storing water closer as well.

Initially I was thinking potentially a ram pump could work but it sounds like fall is required even if you have relatively good flow?

Does anyone have any additional ideas on moving this water?

770W dc pump $560 @ 800 gallons per hour (3,000 gallon a day or 12,000 liters a day)
1000W solar panel $1000
No battery or inverter or charge controller needed.
Total price $1560

http://www.amazon.com/24V-768W-Submersible-40M-Head/dp/B00M1MNH3W

Thanks Benji, solar is definitely one way to go! Do you know of any other ways aside from using eletricity to move water that far/high?

There is always the old and trusted no-electric windmill or waterwheel.


Windmill
$2500
Windmill Tower
$2500

Total Price $5,000
http://www.ironmanwindmill.com/price-list.htm


Some DIY
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterPumping/waterpumping.htm#Windmill
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ah810e/ah810e10.htm

Water Wheel

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterPumping/waterpumping.htm#Spiral

There are a couple commercial versions of the watersheds pump, I think Rife (the ram pump people) make one. I think you are pushing the limits for most of them, though. Solar is probably cheapest these days.

I was actually looking at Rife last night. It looks like they can take water from a stream and move it up nearly 100ft. I was thinking perhaps a dam could be created and allow the water to fall out of the dam through a ram pump to get it the rest of the way to the top of the property. There is a fairly sizable valley that all the water from the potential property/surrounding areas flows into (and then into the river)-- this could be a pretty ideal place for a few acre dam.

I would like to keep the majority of the infrastructure on the property as low tech as possible.

That being said, I work with technology and data all the time. My long term plans would be to install raspberry pi sensors (or something low watt with sensor/wifi) to monitor soil moisture, humidity, and air flow at set intervals throughout the property just to feed my need for information and perhaps use that data to show before/after impacts of different projects.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Look forward to continue engaging in the community here.