Redneckery at its Finest

Water on the Homestead

We live in high desert. This makes water one of the most crucial, and hard to acquire, things on the homestead.

When we got stranded here I had all sorts of plans about water. We meant to set up grey water recycling, bio-filters, rainwater collection, the nines.

Yet, life had other plans, and suffering was mostly what was on the menu.

We had hot, "running water", the day we landed. We had been traveling and camping so I had a sandwich board with a pump and inline water heater as well as a cheap shower tent. So I was prepared to hit the ground running.

Between covid, siskiyou county's Hitler esque laws regarding water, getting stranded, running competely out of money, and losing a chain of vehicles in a row, life decided we could use a bit of hard suffering before things were allowed to flow.

We've been harvesting ground water since we got here for washing. Going to grocery stores to fill for drinking water. The logistics of that changing periodically due to car failure, lack of income, proximity, you name it.

With the intentional environmental disaster, sorry... the damn removal project, the roads in the area are pretty fucked now.

Plus, I'm driving a pretty silly sized car for water hauling.

So I'm going to share how we're currently getting water for the homestead.

We don't have a well.

To get a well here legally, we have to go through the permitting process for house building. That entails being approved for septic, approved on the house plans, and having septic in.

From the horror stories the neighbors that do have houses (like 5 total in the whole valley) tell, this could end up being $35k all said and done if the county didn't like you, or your plans. And you still wouldn't have the house permit. But you would have government employees all over your land.

Now, I can understand the county needing money but this sounded more like a racket to me than governance.

Plus, I didn't want all that when I got here. I wanted to collect our own water, use ground water until we could, build a natural structure, produce our own power and be a self sustained as we could muster. They don't have permits for this type of lifestyle here.

So we've been mostly without water. Having extremely little water most of the time we've been here. When I had my truck running we could run to fill up 275 gallons at a time. With this little car it's a lot different.

When you're without water you have to make sacrifices. Namely in cleanliness.

To make ends meet we sacrificed showers and laundry for periods of time.

To clean some things over the years we simply had to wait. Do it another time when things were better. When we had more water.

It really puts a damper on things when you have to forgo washing something. It also brings the mood down when you can't stay clean yourself. The county used to sell water for really cheap. Then they got so freaked out by Marijuana growing that they essentially made getting water illegal. (They actually made it illegal for a year.)

Using ground water is illegal in California.

I could care less. People need water. When you're super poor, and don't have other water, you're taking ground water. Like every other damn animal on the land. I can understand not taking it for something commercial, but when you're looking at survival all bets are off.

You simply have to do what you have to do. Anyone attempting to stop a person from gathering ground water, when they really need it, should be ignored.

Our new water hauling truck is a tiny car.

The Toyota Echo.

These come stock with all the features you really want in a water truck.

They are way to small, they are barely made to hold their own weight, let alone carry any extra, and have essentially no suspension to speak of.

Well, after driving this car a few years. Throwing tons of 5 gallon buckets in the back for one year, giving up completely for a couple...

I let slip my, not exactly a joke, idea last year about putting a tarp in the backseat to some #thealliance folks.

This year, that dream, became a reality!!

I finally have that tarp in the backseat water tank I always dreamed of!

Hot dog!

The Tank

First I had to get my trusty thinking cap on. Then I had to zone out fairly hard with a bit of clean, definitely not homemade, moonshine. ;) Then I had to wander the yard looking for unused junk that could help my train along.

I found some scrap pallet lumber I've used in about 6 projects already, and a piece of really thick mil vinyl tarp that was way to small to cover anything and way to big to just throw out.

Light bulbs just started going off!

Granted, those light bulbs were a fair bit dimmed by the white lightening...

So I opted for morning to start running angry tools.

Then, I grabbed the meanest damn circular saw I own, which happens to also be the only circular saw I own, and started cuttin.

Grabbed that thick ass tarp and my trusty old knife,

...

and started cuttin.

Screwed a couple boards together, stapled that perfectly cut tarp to them.

Then got confused.

I wasn't sure how to get that fold just right. I could picture it, but this stuff was pretty thick and the picture I had of folding it, left me inside of it.

I didn't want to be inside of it. I wanted to be outside of it, filling it with water.

So there it sat...

Next to the cuttin table for a couple days.

Till I finally got the gumption to tackle it again.

This time, I got the fold, secured the top, and had a fully functioning, water tank.

This baby holds at least 100 gallons.

Fits in the backseat.

And washes my seats all at the same time!

Really though, it only spills a little when it's to full.

Do you see the absolute precision craftsmanship involved here? I mean, from scrap lumber and rope to the folds in the tarp, everything is just exquisite. A true marvel of engineering, no doubt.

Below the tank,

More scrap wood is used to stop the tank from falling into the foot area of the car and ripping. While bottles, cans, and plastic bags are used for dramatic effect.

To pump it out I have a 12v, bilge pump

that will pump 3000 gallons an hour. It just won't pump those gallons very high. So I can empty it pretty quick...

If I'm not to high.

This pump is nearly silent so if you have to become a criminal to get wash water you can at least do it discretely.

This time our neighbor helped.

Our neighbor on top of the hill has a great well and is usually willing to help, yet rarely home. We never had a method for carrying anything down that wasn't a big hassle so this year, with this absolute redneckery, we finally got some water!

We did 13 trips up and down the hill, got about 1300 gallon in the tank now.

The water truck had a few things to say about it.

We gave our thanks to the new water truck, begged other worldly entities to protect the springs, and can now be a bit more liberal with our water usage.

There ya go. That's how you put a tarp in your backseat and carry water.

Thanks for reading.

by Michael David
Co-founder of #thealliance and loyal since before the egg.