rain and rain water collection

RAIN AND RAIN WATER COLLECTION
i have these goals for the future
encourage people to live an organic green life
growing organic vegetables, do solar if possible,
control electricity use, recycle the recyclable , eat correctly
but well, and to exercise regularly

educate people about alzheimers disease and what they
can do to slow their risk down for the disease

and to conserve water and collect rain water
a facebook friends child collects water off their house
with five gallon buckets-good job bg

we decided several years ago to go to a 100% rain water
system without well water or a water system as a backup
source

that decision was questioned this summer during this drought
we went almost 4 months without any rain and
had to actually buy water this summer at $0.10 a gallon
we had only 8 inches of rain this last year (average is 32+
inches a year)
during the large 10 inch rain last year several of my tanks were
unplugged and i missed out on a lot of the rain and later in may
i was redoing my gutters and drain pipes when we got 6 inches
of rain in two weeks so i missed much of that rain

so possibly if i had caught all that missed rain i would not have
had to buy water even in the worse and hottest drought ever here

so this summer i redid my underground pipes and gutters and
down spouts so that they would maximize my rain water collection

before when it would rain i would usually lose water for various
reasons
i did use this dry season to fix those water collection problems
then it wouldnt ever rain for me to see if it would work

so saturday night it started raining
when it rains you need to go check everything while its raining to
see if its leaking or overflowing or stopped up
so at 200 am my wife she (per my instructions earlier) poked me
in the back-its raining

so i got up and got all my rain gear and flash light and took my
inspection tour of the gutters, down spouts, underground
connections, and rainwater tanks to make sure we were not losing
any water
thankfully there was not evidence anywhere that i was losing water
but i did have to clean out one of my gutters that had collected
leaves and was slowing down the water flow down the down spout

yes there is a water god
we got 4 inches of rain here

no leaks were found throughout the night and the next day
since i know my square footage of collection area i know
exactly how much water i should collect for each inch of
rain and i got the correct amount that day
and no leaks have occurred in my system since

we have enough water now to last 4-5 months without any
more rain
my wife she is very happy now that she can wash her hair and
clothes in pure rain water again

we did have to utilize some water conservation methods to keep
our usage down this summer
we will probably continue those
we had to limit what got water outside so we ended up having to
sacrifice some of landscaping as it was all on its own
will post later what survived here in this long drought

am afraid that some of the lessons we learned this summer
need to be used by many people in this area to conserve
water for home use
the water reserves are extremely low and if this drought
continues here many of the cities here will have to do what
we have had to do

not a bad thing though
adversity makes you appreciate things more

the organicgreen doctor

green when green wasnt green, bb,

GREEN WHEN GREEN WASNT GREEN
from fb friend plb thanks

in the line in the store the cashier told the little old lady the  plastic
bag wasnt good for the environment
the little old lady apologized as she said they did not have the green
thing back in her day

thats right back then they did not have the green thing in her day
they returned their milk bottles, coke bottles and beer bottles back
to the store
the store sent them to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled
the bottles were used over and over again
so they really were recycled

but they didnt have the green thing in her day

in her day they walked up the stairs because they did not have
elevators in every store and office building
they walked to the grocery store and did not climb into a 300 hp
machine to go just 2 blocks

shes right though
they didnt have the green thing in her day

back then they washed the babys diapers because they did not
have throw away diapers
they dried clothes on the line not in some energy burning machine
gobbling up 220 volts -wind and solar power really did dry their
clothes
kids got hand me down clothes from their brothers and sisters and
not always brand new clothes (had 7 siblings so always had hand
me downs-was glad i was in the middle and not in the end of the
line-although they would be torn holey and stained by then now
days they would be styling)

but the little lady was right they did not have green in her day

back then they had one tv or radio in the house-not a tv in
every room
the tv screen was the size of a small pizza dish and not the
size of the state of montana

in the kitchen they blended and stirred by hand because they did
not have electric machines to do everything
when they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail they wrapped
it with wadded up newspapers not bubble wrap or styrofoam

back then they did not fire up an engine and burn gasoline to cut
the lawn but instead used a push power that ran on human power
they exercised by working so they did not have to go to a health
club to to run on treadmills that operate on electricity

but shes right they did not have the green thing back then

they drank from a fountain when they were thirsty and did not use a
cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water
they refilled pens with ink (boy that was messy never could get that
done right) and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of
throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull
(also they use to take the razor blade and sharpen it by rimming it
around the edge of a glass)

but they did not have the green thing back then

back then people took the street car and kids rode their bikes to
school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms into a
24 hour taxi service
they had one electric outlet in a room and not an entire bank of
sockets to power a dozen appliances
they did not need a computerized gadget to receive a signal
beamed for satellites 2000 miles out in space in order to find the
nearest pizza joint

but they did not have the green thing back then

BB
well butler bombed
couldnt shoot worth a dam
congratulations u conn and grand pa on the win

lets go aggies
gig that leprechaun tonight

the organicgreen doctor

goin green, karla k morton, thanks

GOIN GREEN
someone commented they did not know where to start
or how to go green

its so easy

rainwater-start with a container under your downspouts
and use the water to water your plants or for your
animals to drink
most common first container is a five gallon bucket  
i still have them in strategic places despite having 30000
gallon tanks to collect rainwater

be careful because it becomes addicting
my brother he went from one 5 gallon bucket to 6
50 gallon tanks to a 300 gallon tank in no time
of course he hid it from the hoa

change all your bulbs to florescent bulbs
can do it gradually so you dont  have to put out so
much money at a time
over time it saves money and eliminates heat production
from the regular bulbs
(i needed a regular electric bulb to put in a lamp over
my water pump last night to keep it warm but could
not find one in our house)

turn off  lights, tv, computer, xbox, etc when not used
i have a power cord that will put things in a sleep mode
if not used

limit water usage
my wife she and i have found that since we are totally on
rainwater for our water system we limit our usage
(survived the drought ok)

recycle trash
we recycle paper, newspapers, bottles, plastic, and glass
there is a center nearby that accepts them

dont buy bottled water
use tap or filtered tap water
most bottled water is just filtered tap water any way
you pay 1000 x more for bottled water than tap water
my wife she and i use a metal reusable water bottles that
are several years old

dont use chemical fertilizers use organic fertilizers for your
yard and never use weed and feed products(they are
banned in canada and in europe)

two good locally made ones are medina organic fertilizer
and the lady bug organic fertilizer
they are usually only found at local nurseries

dont use pesticides insecticides in your house or garden
the product i use in the house is boric acid (roachpruf)
the products i use in the garden are garlic spray, seaweed,
orange oil, insecticidal soap,de(diatamaceous earth),
and bt(bacillus thuringensis)

so for the price of a 5 gallon bucket and some organic
fertilizer and some organic bug products you can now
be prettttttyyyy   green

KARLA K MORTON 
she is the 2010 poet laureate of texas
a new edition of her poetry book
written during her diagnosis, treatment,
and survival of breast cancer is due
to be released soon

she has another poetry book coming
out about her year as the texas poet
laureate
in it she will have a poem for my wife
she and i




THANKS 
thanks for the support and comments from everyone
they make things easier

the organicgreen doctor