Permacultureglobal.org - the interactive map and database of the Worldwide Permaculture Network

White Squirrel Permaculture

Details

Commenced:	01/02/2015
Submitted:	12/02/2015
Last updated:	07/10/2015
Location:	Marionville, Mo, US
Climate zone:	Cold Temperate

My Projects

(projects i'm involved in)

White Squirrel Permaculture

Marionville, US

Followers

Back to White Squirrel Permaculture

Water security

Project: White Squirrel Permaculture

Posted by Eric Hammond about 9 years ago

Water security is the basis of life, without it, all things will perish. Most humans take water for granted and don't understand how much work it actually takes to get it. When I moved out to my place in the beginning of winter, I had no water available to me, so I was hauling in gallond jugs of water. I would keep a few on hand. But when I would go to work and the fire would die down, my water would easily freeze by the time i got back. Then you would light a fire and place the jugs near it and pray you could get enough to have a sip and brush your teeth. It was very stressful. In march I had saved up enough money to drill a well. I decided I never wanted to be without water again. I wanted a solar powered well, because I hated the idea that if the power went out, I did have water, it was just at the bottom of this 400 ft hole. I researched and researched some more and was settled on a Grundfos pump, and found a local company who had done plenty of installs. When the guy came out to talk about drilling the well he mentioned that my best bet was a "simple pump" hand pump, they had installed tons of them and worked awesome. He left me some literature. Heres the link to the Simple pump. Basically it's the same design of old hand pumps, but utilizes modern cnc machining and can be motorized by purchasing their upgrade kits.

It seems like a no brainer to me so I went ahead with the install instead of the grundfos

The well was drilled 465 feet. Water level at 70 feet, pump set at 200 ft. It takes quite a bit of work to pump the water out, but its awesome. and works in the middle of winter as well. I pumped water for a year this way. It takes about 5 minutes to pump about 5 gallons of water. Quite a bit of work!

My next biggest upgrade was catching rain water. I had set up a 300 gallon container and guttering on one half of my shed, an area of approximately 12x9. In an inch of rain I could easily catch 75 gallons of water. It was an absolute miracle! Pretty soon I gathered 300 gallons of water for very little effort and the chickens and goats did not care a bit to drink it. Fantastic!

Then I found an old pump jack and thought I would give it a whirl for making a solar powered well pump out of an old moped motor. And it worked great! I had to use a bucket full of rocks for a counter weight since the up stroke is so much harder then the down stroke.

to be continued

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to comment.

Courses Taught Here!

Project Badges

Administrators

Team Members

(close)

Legend of Badges

Note: The various badges displayed in people profiles are largely honesty-based self-proclamations by the individuals themselves. There are reporting functions users can use if they know of blatant misrepresentation (for both people and projects). Legitimacy, competency and reputation for all people and projects can be evidenced and/or developed through their providing regular updates on permaculture work they’re involved in, before/after photographs, etc. A spirit of objective nurturing of both people and projects through knowledge/encouragement/inspiration/resource sharing is the aim of the Worldwide Permaculture Network.

	Member A member is a permaculturist who has never taken a PDC course. These cannot become PDC teachers. Members may be novice or highly experienced permaculturists or anywhere in between. Watch their updates for evaluation.
	Permaculture Matchmaker One of these badges will show if you select your gender and the "I'm single, looking for a permaculture partner" option in your profile.
	PDC People who claim to have taken a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course somewhere in the world.
	PDC Verified People who have entered an email address for the teacher of their PDC course, and have had their PDC status verified by that teacher. Watch their updates for evaluation.
	PRI PDC People who’ve taken a Permaculture Research Institute PDC somewhere in the world.
	PDC Teacher People who claim to teach some version of PDC somewhere in the world.
	PRI Teacher With the exception of the ‘Member’ who has never taken a PDC, all of the above can apply to become a PRI PDC Teacher. PRI PDC Teachers are those who the PRI recognise, through a vetting board, as determined and competent to teach the full 72-hour course as developed by Permaculture founder Bill Mollison – covering all the topics of The Designers’ Manual as well as possible (i.e. not cherry picking only aspects the teacher feels most interested or competent in). Such teachers also commit to focussing on the design science, and not including subjective spiritual/metaphysical elements. The reason these items are not included in the PDC curriculum is because they are “belief” based. Permaculture Design education concerns itself with teaching good design based on strategies and techniques which are scientifically provable. PRI PDC Teachers may be given teaching and/or consultancy offerings as they become available as the network grows.
	Aid Worker The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to be involved in permaculture aid work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture aid worker experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.
	Consultant The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to do paid permaculture design consultancy work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture consultancy experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.
	Community Project Community projects are projects that help develop sustainable community interaction and increase localised resiliency.