A month or so ago, I shared with you our brand new system for winter water catchment. It involved burying 50 gallon food grade barrels underground, with a hand pump to get the water above ground. In this post, I'll share how that system worked (and didn't work), and how we are managing to catch water (in winter!) on our off-grid homestead. This system worked really well for us, until it got very cold. Then we realized quickly that our system, while great as a season-extender, was not going to get us through a Missouri winter.  The barrels were most likely not buried deep enough, and the pipe that extended above the ground was not sufficiently insulated. As we build systems for our … [Read more...]