Stampie's Grosh Mahal

My only water supply for the last 30 years has been rainwater.  In front of my shop, I have three used 55-gallon polyethylene drums; they used to be $15 each, probably more now.  On the shed roof I have a fourth in a cradle; that one is just for the washing machine, that water doesn't have to be potable.  A fine cloth filter is sufficient to keep all but the finest dirt out of the barrels, and that you can let settle and vacuum it off the bottom.  I add bleach as necessary to the drums to keep down algae growth. 

In front of the house, I have a 1,050 gallon polyethylene tank, set halfway into the ground.  You can't bury it completely, if you were to pump it empty, the surrounding dirt would crush it.  Ingoing water goes through a pool filter, it catches everything except pollen, which can be as small as ONE micron.  During three or so weeks of pollen season the only thing to do is disconnect the input pipes; when pollen gets into your water storage, it rots and stinks up all your water.  Water is pumped out by a shallow-well pump with a bladder tank.  It goes through four filters, the last being an osmotic membrane, then flows through a quartz tube surrounded by a high-intensity UV light to kill bad stuff like microbes.   Has to be quartz, regular glass blocks UV. 

You'll need to paint the outside of the poly tank to keep out heat and sunlight that will promote algae growth.  The only paint I've found that will stick to polyethylene is Glidden Gripper by PPG (but they've renamed it something else).

I can tell you in advance that you'll learn to be water-frugal; half-hour hot showers are permanently out.  And you'll spend a lot of time on maintaining your water supply. 

In reply to Asas_Dad :

I plan on the tank being indoors.  I've based a lot of my calculations on my current usage both water and solar.  I average 1000 gallons of water a month in my current house taking my loved 30 minute showers.  I think that's high as I recently found a big leak.  Gainesville averages 4 inches of rain a month with 2 inch in November being the lowest .  I'll have 4800 sq ft  of roof to collect from.  I like to do worse case so 4800 sq ft x 2 inchs of water = 800 cubic ft of water.  800 cubic ft of water is 5984.434 gallons.  I'm planning on a ~2500 gallon tank so that is more than enough.  Your filtering is very close to what I plan.  I know there's problems with my calculations as far as gutter size and length and how to plumb all that but I think I'll have enough.

Been revisiting my solar calculations this evening so I'll share those when I feel better about them.

In reply to Asas_Dad :

Also I want to thank you.  These type discussions are exactly what I want.  I want people to question what I'm thinking and make me look at what I've planned.  I tend to overthink.  Now I'm overthinking and getting others to overthink my overthinking in a collective way.

I've got some friends who bought a house with salmonella in the well water. He's a chemist, and they put a mini-water treatment plant in the garage-a couple of years later, everything is still good. I'm super impressed, as this sort of thing gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. As I recall, there is an ultraviolet light of some description. 

Yeah, not a ton to add, but every conversation needs the guy spouting off useless information. Maybe I'll get out to my friend's place and take some pictures.

A consideration with UV treatment:

One disadvantage of UV treatment is that the disinfection only works within the UV aggregate and – as such – doesn’t protect against subsequent contamination in the distribution network.  Meaning, while the UV kills everything in the water passing by, it doesn't prevent regrowth of bad goodies in your pipes.  So you'll need to disinfect them periodically with bleach.  https://www.awt-asia.com/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-uv-water-treatment-when-it-comes-to-disinfection-and-water-quality/  Plus, the bleach needs to go in after the charcoal filter, which is there to suck dissolved chemicals out of your water, including chlorine.  If you add the bleach to the tank you'll saturate the charcoal pretty quickly.

Also, while high-intensity UV lights don't burn out quickly, they do get solarized (a coating on the inside that blocks output) by 50 percent.  https://www.espwaterproducts.com/uv-technical-help/

Another consideration is water color.  If you don't keep the leaves off your roof then the rainwater will pick up tannins from them, and can be light  to moderate brown in the tank.  It's not toxic, doesn't even have any flavor that I've noticed; it's just unsightly, not what you expect of tap water.     Again, you can bleach the color out, but then you've got chlorine bleach in your water.  And water with tannins in it can stain porcelain, but some oxalic acid will correct that.  I used to go up on my roof 3 to 4 times a year to blow the leaves off, but my balance is no longer good enough for that to be safe.  Construction planning: leaves will slide off a roof with 6:12 pitch, then all you have to do is clean them out of the gutters.  On a standard 4:12 pitch, the leaves just sit there.

The 55 gal. rain barrels in front of my shop have never had UV treatment, just bleach as I deem necessary.  One could argue for skipping the UV and charcoal filters.  I've read that 3 drops of bleach will decontaminate a gallon of water - if I remember my chem lab correctly one drop is 1ml?  Somebody check my math.

Congrats Stampie on the purchase. I've considered the same several times but the wife doesn't want to live in the woods!

I visited Colombia and every house and most commercial buildings have one or more blue plastic barrels on the roof. These are working as a buffer when usage outstrips supply. Probably doesn't work for long, but I never was in a situation without water.

Ranches Need a Sign!

Congratulations on your purchase, best of luck.  A couple of thoughts I'll pass your way.  As far as the culvert, check with your local road department.  They may be responsible for maintenance, ie: mowing, and egress to the property.  Here in the upstate NY county I live in, they mow, as well as repaired and widened the entrance to our property, due to erosion.  Check it out. 

Another idea for tick control.  Thermacell tubes.  We have used them for years, around the perimeter of the house (about 1 acre), with good results.  You can also try permethrin, cotton balls and toilet paper tubes.

Our home is on 25 acres, and we use rain barrels for our gardening, works out pretty well.  There's tons of info out there to help you with your decisions on rain collection for home use.  

As far as tractors, I use three.  A 1950 Ferguson TO20 for driveway (1/4 mile), and brush hogging, a sub compact Massey Ferguson gc1723e with bucket loader, and belly mower, and an old  John  Deere garden tractor/mower for around the house mowing.  I find I use the Massey with the bucket the most. The gc1723 is newer, so more expensive.  A bucket/ back hoe may suit you for your construction needs, FEL for sure.  Look into older Case (a little cheaper in price, and parts), or Ford.  John Deere is a good machine, but you pay the name tax on everything.  Good luck on being a land baron.

78CobraII said:

Ranches Need a Sign!

I was thinking the same, or Stampiestone!

Have you looked into starting your own sovereign nation? 

In reply to Dirtydog (Forum Supporter) :

Seems I'm responsible for the culvert and mowing along the ditch.  No biggy it's just more of a chicken and the egg thing.  A tractor with a loader will really help putting in a culvert but I'm not at the point of getting one yet.  I'm also needing to do other things on the property beforehand.  I'm trying to avoid any temp items that can't be reused later on but looks like this will be one of those things.

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be a dictator.  I think I would have been a good one but we all know that absolute power corrupts.

In reply to Stampie :

One of my favorite HS teachers used to say "this is a dictatorship... and yall are the taters."  

Stampie said:

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be a dictator.  

i guess eventually you'd get tired of tatin' all them dics.  it's kinda funny in Eddie Murphy's Buckwheat voice.

In reply to Stampie :

Your survey should have marked all 4 of your corners; everything inside the square is your responsibility, the land between your markers and the hardtop is County right-of-way, and their responsibility.  They should mow it, but the county doesn't get mine mowed even twice a year, so you'll probably want to do it yourself.  The issue of the culvert pipe is similar; the ditch is in their right of way, and you might be able to make them install one, but again, simpler, quicker to do it yourself.

I also recommend driving lengths of rebar or steel pipe in next to the markers, painting it.  You'll be surprised how quickly the wooden stakes will get overgrown/rot/fall down.  In two years you will have lost your corners.

I haven't seen an answer to the most important question: how big of a tractor are you going to get.

Asas_Dad said:

I also recommend driving lengths of rebar or steel pipe in next to the markers, painting it.  You'll be surprised how quickly the wooden stakes will get overgrown/rot/fall down.  In two years you will have lost your corners.

My ex's father would take rebar and weld a 2" square plate on the end, then drive that level into the ground at the property corners. He never bothered to paint them as they were pretty easy to find.

In reply to Stampie :

Question Stampie! Have you thought about using Ozone for water purification instead of UV? I'm not sure if it can be used with basic plastic water tanks.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

I have not but that's interesting.  My first thought is it violates the KISS principle but I'll check into it more.

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, I've thought more on that comment I made.  The people who surveyed my property did galvanized pipe with plastic caps on three of the corners (NE, NW, SE), sticking up about 8 inches.  Then a developer bought the acreage south of me and divided it into 5 house lots, another surveyor put in concrete posts with metal caps on them, Marking their corners; they're pretty easy to find - for now.  Markers have a tendency to get covered with time, by leaves, dirt.  My SW corner marker is much older, is now under 6 inches of dirt - only my neighbor knew where it was.  Now I know where it is, too, but it's still 6" down.  And it's illegal to move a survey marker, so I can't legally bring it up. 

It's funny - my northern boundary is actually the Watson Line, an early attempt to draw the boundary between Florida and Georgia (1847?), so on my NW corner there about five markers within a 2 foot circle.  All of them valid.  ???

The last time I marked other markers, I shoved an 8' length of 5/8" rebar down next to each one, put a flag on top of each - makes them easier to find, and in my case I can pull a string between them to mark my and the neighbors' property.  You'll be shocked (SHOCKED, I say) how many of your neighbors won't observe your/their boundaries.  Had to get the Sheriff's dept. out here in one case, guy tried to appropriate about a half-acre of my property.

I recently got a survey and marked some property boundaries as well. I got some tall T posts and pounded them in. Then got some white pvc tube and caps just slightly bigger than the t posts and pounded the pvc overtop of the t posts. 
 

You can see the white  4' pvc tubes from pretty far away. I figure they will break down from the sun over time but still should last a long time and be easy to replace. 

Stampie said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

I have not but that's interesting.  My first thought is it violates the KISS principle but I'll check into it more.

I'm not sure! I have a few ozone generators for anti-mold and they all just run off electricity; you'll still need filters of some kind for dirt, but it seems like one generator running for 20-30 minutes a day is enough to decontaminate your water.

In reply to Asas_Dad :

I can imagine with a larger property, a more noticeable marker would be beneficial.  Her father did these along her property in suburbia where we had to mow over them.  I agree they will eventually get buried if you don't trim around them once in awhile. I used to find and trim around them a few times a year.  I doubt they've been visible in a decade since I stopped mowing her lawn (she now has a lawn service).

I'm currently building a house and shop north of you near 301, near Callahan.  My property is now in Flood Zone A, since FEMA revised the maps in 2010 or so (I bought this acreage in 2006 when it was Flood Zone X).  This has made the build... interesting.  It sounds like you met with the county flood plain manager, I don't know if you've talked to the building department yet.  I see you mention the 500 year/100 year flood plain.  On the FEMA maps, that will probably be called out as Flood Zone A (100 year). 

It is likely that your requirements for a residential structure will be the same as mine.  It must be a minimum of 1' above Base Flood Elevation.  Where this base flood elevation is not established on the FEMA Flood Insurance Risk Maps (very likely to be the case for your property) you must build 3' above highest adjacent grade.  I now have a large pond and we put about a hundred loads of fill in the house area.  My house has a stem wall that was filled with dirt and then a slab poured.  Elevated lowest floors work (mobile homes, etc.) but I was precluded from doing that by my restrictions.

Now on to the shop.. my property is in Nassau County, where a new ordinance in 2021 requires that outbuildings (even non-residential ones like my shop) that are greater than 1200 square feet be elevated to the same level.  They told me that FEMA pushed this on the county; you really, really want to check and see if your county (Alachua?) has done the same.

We dug the pond to double size, dumped about 100 loads of dirt in the shop location.. and finally said screw it, we'll need a couple hundred more loads to get a reasonable slope around the shop to be able to drive into it.  I did an end run.. reduced the enclosed size of the shop to 1200 square feet while roofing the entire 65x42 foot slab.  When I have the final CO from the county, the metal building company will come back out and enclose the rest.  I'm pretty sure the county people know exactly what I'm doing but they're OK with it.  The FEMA audits are forcing their hand.

One possible end run on the elevation requirements: agricultural use.  You're exempt from the elevation requirements for non-habitable ag use structures.  The Nassau County guy asked me, with a straight face, if I wanted to start a worm farm.  I told him I didn't know what all was involved in a worm farm, he says "it's easy!  You just need some tubs of dirt."  Don't know if he's suggested that to others and they've taken him up on it.. 

Alachua County relevant codes:

https://library.municode.com/fl/alachua_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIIIUNLADECO_TIT40LADERE_CH406NAHIREPR_ARTVIIFLHAAR_S406.52.1AP

Building in flood plains, wetlands, and watershed areas always creates challenges. 

One thing to consider about the wetlands on your property; when we first bought this parcel it had a  continuously-flowing stream that bisected it, small enough to hop across.  Then about 5 years later the beavers moved in, dammed it up, drowned seven acres of trees and bushes.  I went to the County property appraiser and asked about; he put a grid over  the image, and declared the 7 acres that were flooded to be "wasteland", removed those from my  taxable acreage.    Your county should do the same for you, it's not useable property.  That doesn't, however, remove it from the wetland designation.  That's environmental.

Just curious, does the wet area have a defined inflow and outflow, or is it just a low spot where runoff collects?  Any idea if it's wet year-round, or if it periodically dries up?

In reply to Kendall Frederick :Wow, Kendall that is a heck of a useful document!  It even addresses Wetlands.