Top 7 Mistakes to Avoid when Harvesting Rain Water

[Music] stop don't drink the rainwater until you watch this video timeout I don't want to waste good water I'm gonna drink it okay okay friends stop and don't do it mr. Hillard don't be drinking the water before you watch this video because there are some key tips that you need to implement before you harvest your rainwater and one of them number one is some places it is actually illegal yeah it's illegal to harvest rainwater can you believe that but here where we live in the panhandle of Idaho we're safe so make sure you check this is sad your regulations to see if you can harvest it now if you can there are some key things that you need to do some mistakes that you need to avoid and stary fashion we're gonna keep it really simple because on our homestead you know we're all about forgetty we don't have a lot of money we like to do it the simple way and we'd like to show you friends how to do it the simple way so you don't need a big elaborate setup you know just remember this it only takes one gallon of water to survive and two to three gallons of water for hygiene but as Americans we use a hundred gallons of this stuff a day that's that's terrible we're out there washing their cars and watering our lawns and filling up our hot tubs and our bathtubs and swimming pools this is a valuable commodity and when you are looking at the priceless Ness of this water you got to be smart about it okay first let's talk about how are you going to catch your water what kind of container well we've got 55-gallon drums we've got them all over the place we love our 55-gallon drums just make sure if you are looking for any type of drum that you know the difference between the ones that you can drink the water out of the potable or you just can be using safe for watering the garden two different types of storage containers so do a little research go around your community see if there's a recycling center that may have some you may end up buying some at Lowe's and Home Depot but know the difference and this is maybe where you're going to spend a little bit of money but lucky for us we got all our barrels for free so you know stary frugal free then also think outside the box with rain catchment systems look at this I've got a real old-fashioned water catchment system that even has a spigot on and that's really important also when you start setting up your rain catchment system do you want a system where you're just going to take a bucket and scoop the water out okay there's that or do you want to set your rain catchment system up off the ground so that you actually have a spigot and you can open it and have gravity-fed or you want to pump the water out of the rain barrel but you don't want the spigot and you don't want it off the ground so you might have to make an extra purchase like a sub pump or a submersible pump that we actually have and we stick it in the barrel and if we want to use the hose it pumps out that water yeah pretty cool so there are a lot of options and just remember when setting up your barrels you don't have to be a rocket scientist you don't need a barrel kit you can get all the little pieces and parts right at your hardware store so don't sweat it keep it simple a couple barrels it if you want and you're ready to go okay now we have to talk about mosquitoes oh no mosquitoes they love rainwater and they love to lay their eggs in the rain water those nasty bugs and you know the other thing is it's not just mosquitoes but the debris and everything else that kind of lands on your barrel so how do you keep all that out and keep your water clean well we'd like to do things like I said very frugally here on the homestead so the first thing that you can try is this is tried-and-true a bed sheet a clean bed sheet you just lay that right over your barrel and what I do is I take a couple close pins and that keeps out everything those those mosquitoes aren't getting this there's no way then the next one is if you don't have a bedsheet have a bedsheet good old-fashioned cooking oil yeah get yourself some eye poison this corn cooking oil or vegetable it doesn't make any difference what brand or what kind just make sure it's a cooking oil and all you do is pour that red on top of your water and cooking oil isn't going to hurt your plants about it it is completely safe and when we scoop it out what we actually do is we just kind of push the the oil aside and we access the water but a little a little cooking up trust me it's cooking oil and then last is screaming if you really want to spend money on a little screen you get the cloth stuff see this cloth stuff and all you do is lay it look at that right on top of the barrels it fits in so well there you go your water is now safe from mosquitoes and debris and other bugs now we have to talk about capturing the rain off of your roof because rain is actually very clean oh yes the government says it meets its standards when it's falling from the sky but that changes as soon as it hits your roof and if you have a material like asphalt or galvanized metal or concrete those materials are a little bit more dirty than say just having a just a metal roof but don't despair Starr is here to tell you what you can do to make sure that your water is not capturing all that bad stuff off of your roof so number one when the rain starts falling don't capture the rain for at least 10 minutes you know it's like opening the spigot and you ever have iron near water and sometimes you got to let it run for like a couple minutes to get all the gunk out of there it's the same thing one if falls from the sky hits your roof and goes into your catchment system at least ten minutes of rainfall needs to be discarded or not even captured before you start saving that rainwater so just the real easy rule of thumb to follow when you are capturing that rain off of your roof and here's one last final bit of story advice don't go too small with your rain collection system don't go too small I showed you our 55-gallon of barrel drums and I'm showing you a big old collection system right here and the reason why think about this one inch of rain collects 600 gallons from a 1,000 square foot rough yeah when it rains here our barrels gets filled up just like that so the bigger the better don't go too small so now friends so now mr. pilder mr. Hildur now here you go you can have some water now you can drink the rainwater [Laughter] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Simply Starry Sustainable Living With God

Views: 540,170

Rating: 4.5734363 out of 5

Keywords: off grid, winter off grid, Harvesting rain water doesn't have to be expensive, complicated or a pain in the neck. Avoid these top seven mistakes and capture the bounty ..., rain catchment, easy rain cathchment, illegal rain harvesting, off grid living is illegal, pure life for livng, justin rhoades, timber framing, off grid homesteading, doug and stacy

Id: fBc8uDw_vNw

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 10 2017