Frugal and Energy Efficient Living

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Since you sound interested - I'll share some experiences.

Rain Barrel - see if you are allowed to build a stand for it or make an archway if need be and place the barrel on top - place it high as you can, then with a tap near the bottom, you can attach a hose and gravity feed for watering whatever. Also you could run the hose to other barrels to get a really good reserve in a downpour.

Nice thing about gravity feed is you can just leave the hose laying about, just using the nozzle to turn the water on and off - not enough pressure for the hose to bust up in the heat of the sun - so no need to turn it on or off at the tank - actually no need for a shut-off valve on the tank at all.

If you go for multiple tanks, most on the ground, you can just get a cheap sump-pump and pump up to the high tank - used to have a tank on the top of my trailer for summer - then I'd have gravity fed water connected to the trailer plumbing inside - collected rainwater in discarded bathtubs off out-buildings, haul it over to the bathtub I had attached to the back of the trailer (yep - I bathed in it often in the summer) and then set the sump-pump in it and pump it up.

I had a small generator I used sometimes, but mostly used an inverter on a 12 volt battery charged by a small solar array.

Another thing on garbage - how to avoid stinky garbage.

I leave wet stuff like bones, veggie cuttings like the bits off tomatoes ya don't wanna eat and so on out on the counter in one of them Styrofoam trays until it dries up, THEN throw it in the garbage. Bones in the winter go right into the wood-stove.

Oh - I just got it - your user name - 4 kids - that'd do it . . .



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