Every drop counts

I live in N California. We have been having very strange weather this spring.  Last night it actually rained, not a lot, but better than nothing.  I'm the one in the family trying to live in a permaculture way ( I have a long way to go, but moving in the right direction). My 4 adult children live at home. Most of them are supportive, but not real helpful in my endeavors.  So I was happily surprised when my daughter was running around trying to find every bucket she could find to capture as much rain water as she could.  I have talked about trying to get a rain catchment system, to not waste what little water we get, I guess she was listening.   Because at this point for us every drop counts.

Congratulations on having your daughter help collect the water.  It's the simple things that show you are making a good impression.

I have had the thought of harvesting water from the roof here in southern Utah, we are experiencing many years of drought here, too.  I need to find a couple IBC totes and connect them to the downspout and I guess I should do that before the next rain, whenever that might happen.  Our water district is pretty reliable, and the wells have a steady supply from an underground river, so I would probably run a small water line from the containers to various trees or garden areas in the yard and let them gravity feed water as needed.

Jen, looks like your daughter is watching you actually do all the things you say you're going to.

Do you have your gutter downspouts going into water collection barrels  (garbage cans)?  It's easy to put a spigot into a plastic garbage can, put a hose on it.  Not for drinking or cooking, but the garden, washing off a car, washing windows, even flushing if you have the right sized bucket.

I have 4 cans hooked up to 4 downspouts, and that's 120 gallons with 1/4" rain.  

And if it doesn't bother you too much, peeing can go into a large yogurt container, something like that, diluted with 1:1 water and used in the garden.  An awful lot of flushing happens with just pee.  

Jen Fulkerson wrote:I live in N California.... I'm the one in the family trying to live in a permaculture way ( I have a long way to go, but moving in the right direction). My 4 adult children live at home.

I just wanted to say "Wow" and "Congratulations" about that aspect of your situation. People (like me) considering living with family again would love your secrets to keeping such a situation drama- and stress-free! Kudos to your family!