Stephen McCarthy

I'm building a simple rainwater harvesting system using three 1000L IBC tanks and was wondering how I can pump the water up to my water tank in the attic of my bungalow. I will use the water for everything except drinking. I'm very low in funds so was hoping not to spend a lot of money on this. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

In Ireland where I live it is discouraged to use rainwater for anything other than flushing toilets, washing machines and outdoor use. Drinking and showering is a big no no. I was told by one official recently that it is in the same category as sewage water which I find ridiculous. I appreciate that drinking rain water without proper filtering is potentially dangerous although I have a friend who's been drinking it for years and he's still alive and well. I'm determined to set up a low cost low tec harvesting system but I'm a bit concerned by all the negative stuff and the need to use expensive UV filters and what not. My question is this: Is it OK to use unfiltered rainwater for washing/showering and anything else apart from drinking. Obviously I'd have to filter the water to get rid of the fine grit and dirt from the roof but without all the other expensive filtering products that the "rainwater harvesting industry" are trying to push on us. Cheers, Stephen

Peter Berg wrote:

Alan Mikoleit wrote:Johan, I like how you covered the barrels, what material did you use and how did you get it to stick to the metal?

The barrels were covered with cardboard first and after that with the wire mesh. This type of mesh is called lath, I am led to believe. The cardboard was done as an experiment and it turned out to be a very smoky business because we couldn't keep the cob layer airtight... In retrospect, we should have used ceramic paper instead to compensate for the expansion of the barrels.

The stove did what was hoped for, by the way. The top barrel radiated lots of heat from the first minute and the covered part got hot enough to burn one's hands despite the 2" layer of cob. This layer could be as thick as 4" I would say, even 6" maybe. But that hasn't been realised yet.

Hi Peter, excuse me for butting in as this is just my second post on permies.com. I´m facinated by this design as it incorporates mass without all the ducting and bench making, which is great but isn´t suitable to all situations. Would you mind clarifying some of the materials used in the construction. Johan mentions that the mesh is firstly coated with ¨some sort of terra cotta¨ What´s the purpose of this layer and what exactly is it. He also says that the outer layer is Loam, Wikipedia ¨ Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration (about 40-40-20% concentration respectively)¨ or is it actually cob? Thanks in advance. Stephen.

Hi everyone and greetings from Ireland, this is my first post. I recently jumped off the deep end and bought myself ten point of lay free range laying hens. I have a half acre holding which includes the house and driveway, so not a lot of space for the chickens. I use a 50meter electric fence to keep the girls safe from predators which is effective but I find it has to be moved approximately every three to four weeks. Moving the fence in itself is proving to be a real pain on my own. I've moved them twice already and with the grass growth slowing down I know I'm going to run out of fresh ground/grass by Christmas.

My first question is: Is there a simpler way to deal with this. Is it possible to keep ten hens in one place without it getting incredibly filthy and at the same time giving them all that they need to produce good quality eggs. It's fairly wet here in the winter so I'm afraid the ground would get really mucky and unhygienic.

And my second question is this: I feed them proper organic pellets from a DIY on demand rodent proof step on feeder but I also feed them free out dated fresh fruit and veg I get from the local vegetable store. I am finding it a chore to keep up with the latter as it means I've got to constantly drop into the store to get the veg and chop chop for fifteen minutes every morning. A lot of the time the store doesn't have any which wastes a lot of time. It was fine at the beginning but now I'm starting to find it's getting to me and the romance with my girls is ebbing. Is it necessary to go to all this trouble or will they produce good eggs with the pellets alone. They're eggs are amazing by the way.

Thanks for reading.