Love the Rain

We've had quite a bit of rain recently, in small spurts. These are soaking rains so they haven't really led to water running off and into the pond yet, but they are still very needed. We get between a quarter and a half inch each time and it's been every 3-5 days. This refills the "soil bank" with water as it allows deep water penetration into the clay. A hard, big rain just tends to saturate the top 5 inches and then everything else runs off into the creek. Terraces would help slow it down so it could soak in deeper but I haven't built those yet.

Yesterday I checked the big tank and it had 550 gallons in it. We can survive on 200 gallons per week with normal activities or we can go into conservation mode and go about 3-4 weeks with that. It all depends whether we haul water all the way from the pond for the livestock or whether we water them from our own supply. We can also skimp on laundry and either take it to the machines in town (and use their water) or simply not do it so frequently and just wear dirty clothes for longer.

For water consumption for just the people, we go through a little less than 10 gallons per day when it's really hot out.