BUILDING A MASSIVE RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM on our Off-Grid Homestead

today's episode is all about trenches the kind you dig and the kind you wear and tubes really really big tubes whoa so our land will be ready for whatever rains or monsoons the future might have in store look at that flow welcome back to our Channel if you're new around here we're Brittany and Drew two hopeful adventurers who got married moved into a van and have been chasing adventures all around the globe ever since and now after moving from the USA to Portugal we'll be documenting our entire journey of building our dreams as we transform a historic water mill into our first home not on Wheels join us as we embark on this new and exciting phase of life now let's take in a deep breath and let it out [Music] let the adventure begin s the rain has stopped just a little bit and I can hear Jose's truck which means we just got our tubes delivered which has been on our minds because it's supposed to rain a lot tomorrow and we had Nelson dig some really ginormous trenches for these concrete tubes that weigh I think about 650 pounds or 250 kilos somewhere around there so these trenches are big because these tubes are huge so we've got a marker right here at the end of the canal that's going to be the spot where the first tube goes we're actually going to need nine meters we got 10 just in case we need an extra but we're only gonna end up using nine meters which is 27 feet so this is a pretty massive Canal we got going on we're doing some final touches right now Nelson is right here making sure that we don't have any debris in the middle you just took out one more rock that was further down that was going to be a bit of a problem because if it was teeter-tottering it'd create some pressure on one of the tubes and that potentially could snap the tube so we're feeling pretty good about this we've eyed it up a few times measured it out a pretty huge Canal but it's exactly what we need in order to get the water moved away from the mill and protected in the future that's our number one goal with this we should say though that when the tubes arrived they looked even bigger than we had imagined so the challenge they're discussing right now is that we need to get the big pipes out and the little pipes are inside the big pipes there's going to be quite the puzzle for Nelson One Umbrella Nelson's got his little window washer going [Music] [Music] to say was just telling me that usually this is the weather that they experienced in March and April so this is really good for the ground right now I think I have another surprise delivery from a friend in the area I hear metal clanking is that a delivery that's your receiving post there dude I think you could just hook the change yeah yeah thank you Matt so go go go go go go like a champ I had to grab a beanie and a jacket oh my goodness it's difficult in the canal uh maybe one two three four five six seven did you you thought 60 was like this originally yes so we got really big yeah really we will have no debris par a in dentro how much is one of these they cost about 25 Euros each this one weighs about 120 kilos which is like a little shy of 300 pounds and these are eight Euros each if I'm looking for Britney on our property and can't find her I'll know she'll be hiding in our tubes it's a good hiding spot whoa guys I'm in a tube it sounds like I'm in a tube whoa crazy so this is part of the trench system but now we're wondering that it might need to be a little deeper but hey we'll be prepared for anything whether we're installing tubes for water harvesting optimizing our roads planning for the future of our Terraces or beginning the process of renovating the actual water mill itself there are so many projects running through our minds and in order to help us prioritize and visualize where to most effectively spend our time and energy it's important for us to keep all of our ideas organized in one place which is why we are so grateful to have found this app Miro it basically allows us to create a mind map with all of our different ideas and our lists of supplies and tools that we need to get for each one and we can move things around easily when they change order or when a project becomes a little bit more complicated and so whether you're an entrepreneur working for yourself or a big company it works with like 100 other apps to just really consolidate your workflow and it allows you to collaborate you can host workshops and use their video camera feature and just really be able to like collaborate so when Drew goes to the store I can change the supply list and we can communicate through the app about our projects so it just helps us be really streamlined and if you guys want to try it out we put a link in the video description below for you because it's pretty great we hope you find nero as fun to use as we do now let's see what's on our list of things to do on a rainy day we just got a video from Nelson from down at the coast taking a look up at where we live in the mountains just 30 minutes away wow hear the seagulls it's all caked in with cloud coverage today not a very typical day for the Algarve not at all but what I love I get to look at this feels very very lucky to have rain in the summer like this special [Music] I think I might go film The Gutter because we want to see what's happening with our new drainage stitches I'm going slow look at that I'm very intrigued what's going on hopefully I don't slip it's pretty slick out here I don't know Crocs and socks might have been a bad idea oh that's soft this right here that we built the other day that's the area of concern we didn't want too much water coming down the funnel that's naturally made here in the landscape and destroying the work that Nelson did the other day yeah we got a lot of water build up right there you know those tubes we got delivered well they should really help with this matter look at that flow [Applause] foreign wow all right we're gonna go take a look behind the mill now oh cool what's really good right now is for me to be able to walk around and see the damage that some of the water is doing and where we need to have Drainage Systems tubes laid out little ditches Doug and even some of the debris and the rock walls that are caving in I mean we are at the bottom of a valley a canyon this is even the damage that might happen during the winter months when they say there's a ton of rain in the region but as you can see his rain gutters he created along the driveway down to the mill they're working perfectly doing exactly as we hope and actually right behind where I'm standing this is where we intend to put the big tube so it captures all this water from these two major canals coming so far down the canyon in the valley that will empty the water out above our Second Terrace and we can put some tanks there to hold the water and at least route the water at a safe distance away from the mill that way in the future during the winter time we won't have any issues to deal with and that water will be useful for future things that we have going on okay so like I was mentioning down low Nelson was quite concerned because of all the elevation difference in our land and how much water there could be emptying down onto that newly built area that he created and this is exactly why he did what he did because Nelson understood look at that flow holy smokes good thing it's not flowing down this section yet before the water mainly flowed down this Ravine on the left which ultimately created somewhat of a landslide effect by our back doors which we have since cleared away but now we've blocked off that Ravine so the water will now flow down the one on the right which will eventually lead to our future water tank but since we don't have our water tank in yet we closed off that Ravine and just have the water diverted off the far edge of our property like Drew was explaining this is the idea behind using the smaller tubes we'll have a gate up here that way we can route the water One Direction or another just like a train track excellent planning I'm very happy with this system hey Brittany yes what are you doing I look warm now the sun is shining Nelson is a genius and definitely understood our land and how to manage it properly his canals and Tube system is impeccable when the tubes aren't even in but the canals are there it's only gonna get better we decided it was the perfect night you haven't seen how we cook it on a stove top I cooked juice first in the frying pan and then I cook mine but Drew stays warm on top of the upside down pizza pan you gotta do what you gotta do I got sweet potato garlic mushrooms onions spinach okay okay amazing [Music] [Music] come on foreign how cool is this Nelson has his own mug I love it so what we are up to today is we are gonna be putting these tubes in the ground we're bringing them from up top where we unloaded them in the rain the other day to right over here because exactly where I'm standing and where the trailer is crossing right now we're gonna be digging a trench right across here it's pretty mushy the soil's soft so we figured it was best to do it this way rather than the excavator driving up and down up and down tearing up the fabulous work that we'd already had done on our land I'm excited about this how about you guys all right almost yes foreign [Applause] after watching Nelson do so much excavator work I trust his preciseness and that he won't crush me with these tubes Houston we have a landing [Music] let's see if I can skip this Stone [Applause] maybe five that's good nice babe try another one here we go this is a good Stone nice and flat oh we're walking down to go see how much water has collected in the buckets underneath the Skylight inside of the mill so we were just observing how much the mulch covered part of the Terrace has way less weeds and steel fish or brambles growing than the unmulched part it's pretty crazy thinking we should mulch all of The Terraces all right be real dark in here with that tarp over top of the window see if it worked I don't think a phone light does anything here you go oh that's better thank you offline whoa this thing is full it's full of water wow it's so pure wow yeah let's do this filter this we got some drinking water how about these buckets a little bit in that one there definitely was some water on the floor though you can tell by the moisture so Mega leakage I think put those supports up that's right okay okay those are the polls can you tell us a ghost story once upon a time there was an Old Mill he was infested with mice cute little mice it's handy those are here I gotta say that yeah I would agree if I could get right under that center part it would be the best it almost looks like it's folding in I think it'll get that on I mean that's not a bad spot right there yeah that's great we need something to be able to make this taller we got lots of wood stumps ah stumps that's a great idea stumps all right stumps [Applause] don't fall in the river could open the back door it's been easier than traversing this sketchy walkway but I love the rocks that Nelson Has added yeah me too but now when I'm carrying a 100 pound stump dear I missed it no days complete without a Wipeout of some sort oh the ghost the mouse in the house it's not OSHA certified oh yeah laughs I'm glad Ralph showed me how to use this it only seems natural that we would use a tree stump to help support this yeah it's stealing at home with these other two yeah I'm gonna put actually one more right here on this bottom beam I don't think we need a stump for that yeah I think we'll sleep better at night knowing these are in Berry carefully oh dear oh too bad we don't have any cement to mix right now or baby the days oh no please you did it you can just right there anywhere we did it before this one how many more wheelbarrows full of water will we have to wheel out let's just leave this outside and let it dry okay here's our very late lunch I appreciate it how are the tubes going have I missed out on anything big we're just getting to all the action that's exciting [Music] curious side you are [Music] Pokemon Tim [Music] perfect the way these work is they fit inside the lip each one has a lip on the big end and the small end goes directly into there [Music] a few of these tubes have been a little more of a challenge to get fitted in here so we're having to go back through and cut out some of the sides of the wall here so if I would cut that left side one message doing a little extra digging over there I want to point this out this entire tree next to the mill is a fig tree and look we got buds all over this tree oh fake season's gonna be wonderful around here look at this there's four right there good thing we've had all this rain because those are gonna be luscious one more left after this one wow [Music] all right all the tubes are in all Nelson's got to do is cover them back up [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] this is where it flows out to you can see right through it the whole way it's a great hide and go seek spot it's a great one the thought is that this will like empty out into a tank of some sort we haven't completely worked out all the details like how it will funnel into the tank and what kind of a tank it will be but I don't think we're gonna get much rain here during the summer so we got time we got time to figure that out for winter it looks really well covered he compacted all the dirt down where the tubes were and Nelson told us our next job was to make like a cement funnel almost so that the water that comes flowing down here has a clear entry point into the tube and any overflow is what will go down that slide the idea for these tanks is that they won't block this Terrace because we still want to be able to drive up and down on it and have a big Lane for vehicles to drive on this Terrace and the reason some of these projects now [Music] here at our fingertips he's got other projects to work on so we're like okay what are some of the things that we definitely can't do ourselves and digging that with you know pickaxe no when we dug our friend's drain our French drain hole was like this those were like these are huge you know I mean you could go all the way on the other side of that that's almost 30 feet long of tubes wow and wave through it and Nelson's not done he has to go up to the Upper Terrace and he's gonna finish putting in I think the 40 centimeter tubes that will then feed the water down the waterfall section and into this exact area so it all just works together really well which we're all really grateful for we all make a good team especially Drew and Nelson though I know they have a lot of confidence in each other and seeing them move those big and heavy cement tubes together it takes a lot of trust so Nelson and I we moved all the rest of the tubes put them in the canal you know it feels really good to have confidence and an excellent excavator driver that we can work together and make this project happen I just really like doing a lot of the projects and seeing how they're done it gives me so much more appreciation for when we actually get done with them that I was able to be part of them and just not just pay somebody out and sit back in a chair and sip a latte or something but really get in there on the action it is a bit of danger zone and being under there while that thing's suspended in the air but I'm up for the challenge I know uh I can do it and with Nelson I feel like I got the right guy to trust so feels good to have that checked off our list and onto other projects you're staying dry Nelson's a lot smarter than I am we're just waiting aren't we rock paper scissors no one two three shoot my game see double joysticks we can't wait to see you all in the next episode until then know how much we love and appreciate you [Music]

Channel: Mr and Mrs Adventure

Views: 240,347

Keywords: Mr and Mrs Adventure, vanlife couple, vanlife, van conversion, vanlife how to, vanlife inspiration, van life, van life vlog, sprinter van conversion, minimalist living, alternative lifestyle

Id: xbN0HW4_3BQ

Length: 25min 13sec (1513 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2023