We are going to be talking about water today. Successful management of water is integral to living off grid. To change things up a bit though I won’t be whining about the water or lack thereof for my garden but we will talk about our drinking water.

I always have had concerns with E drinking well water. He is immune suppressed and could so easily pick up a bug that I never felt it wise. We had our water tested when we moved here and it passed but it always tasted mineraly (?) and not delicious. So we have never used it for drinking.

This left us three options. We could fill our water jugs at the local marine park. The water there is tested monthly (I think) and is very safe. Or we can use the water from the well at the family house. E has been drinking it for forty years and never had a problem. So that is what we have been doing. We “borrow” 3 gallons of water every two weeks or so from our very generous sister and brother in law.

But it isn’t a viable plan for the long term future which brings us to option three. Installing an extensive (expensive) filtration system in our rain water harvesting system.

When the rain water drains off the roof it goes through a Wysy water system. The roof water is fed through a fine mesh before it goes into it’s initial tank. Once it leaves the tank under the deck it goes into one of four 1500 gallon tanks at the top of our property (Elevation 60 feet, distance 300 feet). Those tanks are treated with a small amount of bleach every month.

When a tap is turned on down at the house, the water begins it’s trip back down the hill. Once it reaches the house it first goes through a 5 micron particle filter, then it goes through a charcoal filter and then a UV light.

Our rain water system has been installed for over a year now and we finally feel the tanks and pipes and system have had ample opportunity to flush through any issues.

We went down to the family house today to fill our water jugs. Frankly, we are probably as tired getting our drinking water this way as our family is of us borrowing their water. Let’s be honest. They aren’t going to get it back.

So E gave me a taste test when we got back and I gotta say our water was good. I could even say delicious… It will be great to reap this oh so necessary benefit of our new water system.

So the plan is to get our water tested just to be sure, and finish up the water we have on hand from the family home. Then, we can clear off the counter top and put away

the water jugs