# Snowbird Homesteading Desert and Forest... Guess our plans changed



## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

After considerable research we have declined to moved to our midwest location after finding the midwest farm locations we looked at were plagued with chiggers and ticks.

Due to our age we can't spend months in harsh winters or brain frying desert heat.

So here's where were going.......

Mountain region of Central ID for 7 months and 5 months in Central AZ.

The only hassle of the two locations is transporting 4 horses and poultry between the two locations. We will just have to deal with it.

For the Desert Home we plan on cistern-ing the water off the flat roof in 4 10X10 http://loomistank.com/plastic-water-tanks.shtml tanks for vegetables and fruit trees irrigation. Looks like 14 inches of rain fall in this area give or take a few. We will filter the water the best we can and everything will get a drink via gravity feed irrigation tubing hooked up to a timer.
Kabota Generator to charge batteries and run the well pump, LED lighting.

The ID Ranch gets enough rainfall to grow most what we would need.
Kabota Generator to charge batteries and run the well pump, LED lighting.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

Two questions...1) why do you have to filter it if it is just for the plants and trees? 2) are you going to keep the tank in the shade? 

I am looking at the same kind of system for my house, but I don't know how to keep the water cool enough. The system I have rigged right now gets the water very hot during our 110 degree days here.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

kejmack said:


> Two questions...1) why do you have to filter it if it is just for the plants and trees? 2) are you going to keep the tank in the shade?
> 
> I am looking at the same kind of system for my house, but I don't know how to keep the water cool enough. The system I have rigged right now gets the water very hot during our 110 degree days here.


Filter? Well just as a precaution. Not sure what the composition of flat roofs are. Besides, I plan on several horses to water too.
Shade and water capacity is important here. Although as stated I don't plan to be in the desert during the hot months.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

Thanks for your reply KM :beercheer:


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

HELIXX said:


> After considerable research we have declined to moved to our midwest location after finding the midwest farm locations we looked at were plagued with chiggers and ticks.
> 
> Due to our age we can't spend months in harsh winters or brain frying desert heat.
> 
> ...


I have had one of the black ones now for almost 15 years and never a problem. Also, with black, no alge grows as their is no sunlight.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

Nadja said:


> I have had one of the black ones now for almost 15 years and never a problem. Also, with black, no alge grows as their is no sunlight.


Thanks N. I'll go with black ones then.
I like these guys better. No tax if you use them for storing rain water.

Plastic-Mart - 500 Gallon Water Tank : 500 Gallon Plastic Water Storage Tanks


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Helixx,

With 14" of rain, how much water will you be able to collect? Not sure what your roof sizes are but that doesn't sound like a lot of water, especially if you have 4 horses to water.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

bczoom said:


> Helixx,
> 
> With 14" of rain, how much water will you be able to collect? Not sure what your roof sizes are but that doesn't sound like a lot of water, especially if you have 4 horses to water.


The home is a flat roof 1 story with a 5000 sq ft foot print. It has a well.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

bczoom said:


> Helixx,
> With 14" of rain, how much water will you be able to collect? Not sure what your roof sizes are but that doesn't sound like a lot of water, especially if you have 4 horses to water.





HELIXX said:


> The home is a flat roof 1 story with a 5000 sq ft foot print. It has a well.


14/12=1.167
1.167x5000=5835 ft^3
5835x7.5=43762.5 gallons

that's about 44k gallons per annum not taking into account evaporation


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

You left your units off, Blob...Took me a minute to translate your math.

14 inches/12 months =1.167 inches of rain per month = 0.1 feet of rain per month

0.1 feet of rain per month x5000 sq. ft. house roof = 500 ft^3 of water per month

500 ft^3 of water x7.5 (there are 7.5 gallons in 1 ft^3 of water)=3750 gallons per month

3750 gallons per month x 12 months =45000 gallons per year.

Both of our work involves some rounding, which will account for the relatively slight differences in our final answer. In short:

I concur with Blob's mathematics and his reasoning, and believe us to both have come up with a reasonable expectation for the amount of rain water that will be collected.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

That should be enough for the animals and land. I'm assuming the well is in play for human use.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

Big thanks for all the math guys.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

Looks like were going for 10-76" X 48" Black tanks from these guys.
Plastic-Mart - 500 Gallon Water Tank : 500 Gallon Plastic Water Storage Tanks


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## beanpicker (May 25, 2011)

weeeeem all that math just is over my head, I could tell you how much water I had in a 5 gallon bucket if it rained till it filled it full , an the dogs didn't drink out of it but then again maybe I would have to figure in if it eveoprates before I get out to mesure it..Im so Thank full some are so smart to take up slack for us who are lacking ..


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Beanpicker-it's not that bad. I wrote out all the units (gallons, sq and cubic feet, etc) so that people could follow along the math.

I know it sure doesn't seem like it, but there are supposedly 7.5 gallons in one ft^3 of water. Just looking at it, to me a gallon milk jug looks almost like a cubic foot, but numbers don't lie.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

we've had 8.1 inches of rainfall just this month (more than double average), which makes me wonder if the summer will drier & hotter than normal :dunno:

the *two acre* pond water level has risen about 2 feet due to all the runoff!

that's an estimated 1.3 *million* gallons of water _added_ to the estimated 10.5 million gallons already there

the almanac predicted lower than avg precipitation for this area for every month except April (+1") and August (+1")


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

:woohoo:

You guys with the math ... just ROCK!!!


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## beanpicker (May 25, 2011)

Jason, as my grand kids say,"Thats over your head grandma" ,, but I have a son like you he can figuer how many hairs are on a person head I bet,,, hee hee


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