BRING ON THE RAIN!

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:09]So today we are back on our rainwater harvesting project. And with that, just to get everyone up to speed, what we do have is our metal roof. It's roughly 1,200 ft². That is our collection area.

[00:00:22]And then we have our two 2500gallon tanks here behind me. That is our water storage area. But currently I don't have any way to get the water from the roof into those tanks. So today that changes So, how I'm assembling this whole gutter setup is I'm doing it in two sections.

[00:01:15]So, one long section over the back deck in the utility room and then one section over the kids' room. No corners, nothing like that. It's just one single pitch for each one down to a down spout. And then as far as how they're put together, super easy where the sections overlap each other, uh like the pieces, the individual pieces of gutter, I'm overlapping them 8 in. They'll be riveted together and then Sycoflex 1A, which can be used with potable water. So that's going to seal everything up.

[00:02:02]Do not separate.

[00:02:04]You're going to break it, sweetie.

[00:02:06]You're going to have been My full-time job is just making sure the kids don't mess up what Spencer's doing.

[00:02:17]You know, this job really is perfect for you.

[00:02:20]>> Why?

[00:02:21]>> Because your mind is just always in the gutter.

[00:02:25]>> Leave it to Ken with the dad jokes.

[00:02:39]>> This is riveting.

[00:02:44]>> Oh my god.

[00:03:15]Mhm.

[00:03:30]Well, the gutters are done.

[00:03:32]Unfortunately, today was an errand day and I don't have Ken's here to help me install them. So, in the meantime, I do have something that I need to work on before next winter starts rolling around, and that is processing some of the firewood that we have around here.

[00:03:48]So, as far as the wood storage goes, once that's actually been chopped, and we need an area to store it to allow it time to season. So, the plan is to store it right here underneath the deck. So, this will just function as bulk storage for seasoning the wood and all of that.

[00:04:06]And then the uh front door will also have a little storage rack too that you'll pull from in winter. So you don't have to come all the way out here.

[00:04:36]All right. So, now that the stand is built, it's now time to fill it with wood. And it's kind of perfect because if you all remember that tree that fell on the cabin.

[00:04:46]>> Oh my god. No. No. Oh no.

[00:04:54]>> It's still largely here. I still need to process it. So, we're going to fill it with sweet, sweet birch. And I don't know if sweet birch is really a good fire word. I haven't even looked it up or anything, but want to find out this year.

[00:05:46]Wow.

[00:05:49]Wow.

[00:06:10]I don't think this little side by side can hold any more wood. Heck, I'm going to be struggling to even get out of here. Not because of the power, but because of anything falling off. So, let's go stack it up.

[00:06:23]Oh my goodness.

[00:06:32]The tilt right now.

[00:06:36]A rock.

[00:06:39]All right. I think we'll be all right.

[00:06:51]Wow, this looks great. I think it looks so pretty.

[00:06:56]This >> especially that uh plum that I ended up chopping up.

[00:07:01]>> Yeah, that wood is beautiful. Honestly, I like it so much the way it looks with the wood under the deck. I think that you should just >> continue this all the way.

[00:07:10]>> That's the skirting is firewood.

[00:07:11]>> Yeah. princess.

[00:07:15]>> It's a tree.

[00:07:18]>> You see the clouds?

[00:07:22]>> What? Dad, that's a tree.

[00:07:25]>> A tree?

[00:07:30]>> Now the real question is, do you think that this will be enough firewood for winter?

[00:07:35]>> Yes.

[00:07:35]>> Obviously with also using a mini split, more than enough. And it's a small space that's well insulated. So, >> right, she's chewing on the Ah, hey.

[00:08:41]Which one would do you prefer?

[00:09:13]So today I kind of got the pressure on me because tonight and tomorrow we got a bunch of rain coming and the problem is I don't have any way to connect the gutters and the roof catchment to the tanks. So, what I'm going to do is start with the tanks first and kind of work my way backwards.

[00:09:35]All right.

[00:09:38]How to do this? I think honestly I'm going to put it right in the center of this so I can have the dump above the 2500 gallon mark. I'm going to have my overflow probably over on this side just slightly down. So, yeah, at least that's what I'm thinking.

[00:10:00]All right, here goes nothing.

[00:10:16]There we go.

[00:10:32]Heat. Heat.

[00:11:00]Well, good news is the gutters work at uh directing the water. Bad news is I didn't finish getting the plumbing all done. So, uh yeah, hopefully it doesn't rain too much and just create a mud fest over here. Um but there's only so much I can do.

[00:11:31]I have the plumbing sitting on blocks just to raise it up a little bit in case it does start to collapse in. And also the tops of the pipes are taped off to help prevent dirt from getting in there.

[00:11:43]But if this all fills with water, I'm pretty much screwed all the way around.

[00:11:48]So hopefully that's not the case.

[00:11:54]Well, I got some good news and not so great news. So, the good news is my hole did not cave in last night. I think it's mostly because this uh little splash shield I put in here, it helps kind of prevent the water from going that way cuz it does naturally want to go this way, at least in this exact area. So, it kind of directs it that way away from my ditch. And then the other one just doesn't have enough flow to really I don't think we got enough rain to really do anything over there. So everything kind of worked out. Everything's good.

[00:12:29]But the downside is this soil is like a rocky clay with a lomy kind of top. And it is the stickiest soil. I mean, it's clay, so of course it's going to be sticky, but it it just sticks to your boots and instantly becomes like little weights for your feet. So, today I think what I'm going to start with is move my way from the gutters down to the leaf eaters and then kind of work that way around and then I'll connect it all down to the uh pipes and ground. So, that's the direction I think I'm going to go.

[00:13:12]Man, I have never been so excited to see a mini urinal on our shipping container.

[00:13:19]I think you installed it a little high, though.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah, you just got to use a ladder.

[00:13:26]>> But seriously, I cannot tell you guys how excited I am that we are about to be catching rain water. I know we still have several steps to be able to actually use it, but just catching it is such a big moment. I mean, we've had this property now for a little over 3 years, and yes, we have been working on it on and off, but when we have been here and been working on it, it has not exactly been easy to get water. So, just the idea of being able to turn on a faucet or turn on a spot and have water just easily accessible to us here just sounds nuts. If you don't know, Spencer has had to go over the mountain in the tractor with our water tank and pump water out of the creek that way. We've also just had to pump it out of the creek near us when the water is flowing over here. So yeah, it just has definitely made the living conditions a little bit more difficult because water literally is required for everything for drinking, for doing dishes, for laundry, showering.

[00:14:37]So to say that I am excited for these tanks to be starting to fill up soon is an understatement. The next hurdle, power. You going to build an adjustable array?

[00:14:50]>> No.

[00:14:51]>> Hell no.

[00:14:53]>> Oh my gosh. I just thought of something.

[00:14:55]Another way that we have gotten water is our trash can. You remember that?

[00:15:00]>> Same method, but Yeah.

[00:15:03]>> What do you mean?

[00:15:03]>> Pumping it out of the creek.

[00:15:04]>> No, no, no.

[00:15:06]>> Oh, yeah. We caught it off the the camper awning a little bit.

[00:15:10]>> Yeah. Spencer tilted the camper awning in a way that it the water would fall off of it into an unused trash can.

[00:15:19]>> Brand new >> brand new unused trash can and uh then he would pump the water out of that to where it needed to go.

[00:15:28]>> We didn't drink it. I feel like I need to say that. We've never drank any of this water, but yeah, we've used a lot of different methods. You got to do what you got to do. Remember the days we used to shower with trash can water.

[00:15:47]Oh, and it's starting to rain again.

[00:16:39]Hey, love.

[00:16:42]>> Wow. Look at all this.

[00:16:45]>> Yeah, that >> looks legit.

[00:16:47]>> Yeah, there's some pipes here.

[00:16:50]>> Okay, so now that all this major section of plumbing and piping are all done, figure I'd go ahead and explain what's kind of going on here cuz I mean there is quite a bit going on. It's actually quite simple, but it it just looks like a lot. So coming down from the roof, obviously the rain falls onto the roof, directs into the gutters, and then from the down spout of the gutters, which I haven't put on yet, it'll be directed directly into what is called a leaf eater. It's just a stainless steel mesh that will filter out any leaf debris, large organic material, stuff like that.

[00:17:26]And then so the water will flow down and under the first rain or first few minutes of rain, it'll fill up this first chamber which this chamber has a little plastic ball inside. So imagine like a kids play pin ball. It's actually green. And that'll rise to the top.

[00:17:46]It'll hit this the bottom of this first uh this little diverter and then it'll stop right there. then allowing the water to bypass this and come down. So, the reason why that is set up that way is because you wash away most of your finer uh debris like dirt and sand, anything real fine that gets blown onto the roof. Most of that will be washed away within the first few minutes of the rain. So, that's what this is. it'll uh catch most of that and then once this is filled up, it'll overfill down and then spill over into the tanks. And elevation on this, they look really similar to the tank height, but this is actually just over it's close to 2 ft above the tanks.

[00:18:38]So, water is always going to find level.

[00:18:40]So, since this is a little bit higher, it's just going to naturally want to spill over into the tanks, which are a little bit lower. So, now it's just on to finishing up the little down spout connections so we can actually have water get into these leaf eaters or fed into the leaf feeders. This is just at the bottom of the first flush.

[00:19:04]This is just at the bottom of the first flush. This is just a little rubber grommet in there. They actually come with different sized holes to allow for uh bleeding cuz you don't want this to just continuously store water. So, it'll bleed itself out, but it's small enough to it'll take some time to bleed it out.

[00:19:21]And then this is just so this sits right inside too. This is just to help prevent that little uh hole from clogging up.

[00:19:38]And like that, we are done. So, we are ready for rain now. I mean, we're a few days out from rain, and I'm sure we'll get plenty of it, but uh I just wish I could have had this done a wee bit sooner for the all the rain yesterday, but whatever. So, what's left is just back filling. And I have to do an overflow, which by the way, I think the tanks are right here. And what I'm thinking is I'm going to run it out along the back side of the cabin because I'm going to have to trench this anyways for our solar conduit and all of that. So, I'll probably just throw them in the same trench, the overflow and that. But yeah, very happy with how it's come out so far. Now, it's just to see if I have any leaks. And as long as I don't have any leaks, then I'll go ahead and back fill the rest and it'll be history.

[00:21:02]I love that sound.