Off Grid with Michael David

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Getting Water

Water can be easy or really hard to get wherever you decide to set up and be off grid.

Maybe you've already got a well or can drill one easily and that's great.

What if you can't?

Where we live there is no water. It's high desert. There is a lake a few miles down the road with a river flowing out of it but there is no water running through our valley.

Drilling a well here since we're higher up is pretty expensive at around $20k, if you get lucky.

Drinking water clearly needs to be well thought out.

I'm in USA so I just go to the local store and fill jugs with RO water for drinking once a month or whatever. I'll be working on a system so we can stop buying drinking water soon enough.

Wash water on the other hand, you just need a ton more of.

The first 2 years we carried water in. On a truck and usually pulled from a local stream or lake (Though lake water is not that good).

Now here pulling water out of a creek is supposed to be illegal but no one does much about it. If the sheriff caught you he might but the locals tend to look the other way in most cases.

Wash water only, streams and things can often be clean enough for your needs.

My general rule of thumb on water is if it is clean enough that you'll swim in it then it's clean enough to wash with.

This is not the case with drinking water though.

However, if you can find a crystal clear creek and boil that water you can drink it, I have my whole life.

We definitely did that some here when really in a pinch but mostly were able to get the RO water.

If you happen to have a spring that is either on your property or somehow publicly used then you have some wonderful water that is often drinking quality as is.

I don't have a creek here but if you have one on your property I can show you how to get pure drinking water from it even if the creek is black. Takes some building but can be set up gravity feed with the only fuel going to heating an 8x8 in winter.

I'll do a post on that sometime but since I don't have a working model I don't feel comfortable sharing it. Plus you need a creek to be on your property to do it.

Look, if you can get a well put in then by all means do it. It can save you a lot of headache.

I can't do that here until I'm earning much more than I am now.

So for the first 2 years we got our wash water from local streams that were pretty clean.

Now we have a rainwater setup.

The most crucial thing about having water without a well is storage.

How will you store all the water you collect. Be it from a stream, spring, rain or whatever?

Especially if you have no or little money.

Next Friday I'll get into that.

Thanks for reading.

Off Grid with Michael David Getting Water
by Michael David
Co-founder of #thealliance and loyal since before the egg.