Homesteading Archives - Small Things Are Big Things

My grandfather was a farmer here in Orange County.
He grew oranges, go figure!
He would save plastic containers to put at the bottom of his shower. After his shower the containers would be full of water, and he would go out and water his garden.
I’d like to call this genius, and the easiest/cheapest grey water system you could ever install.
Brad thinks I’m crazy.

You guys! I’m only getting more extreme with all my ecology interests.
Really.
Maybe it’s my grandpa’s genes coming though, but now I’m seeing our rain barrel was just the beginning.
I swear, one day you are going to come on my blog and we are going to be building a bomb shelter and making our own soap!
Anyhoo…
I took a grey water class at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano and I loved it!

The class was taught by Brooke from H2OME and I want her to come to our house and install stuff! Brooke does home consultations for water capturing landscape and water systems and she gave us so much great information.

What is “Grey water?”
Thanks for asking! Grey water is the water leftover from showers, bathroom sinks and your washer. You can use this water for landscaping instead of city water. (I really liked this FAQs page about grey water)

Why does it matter if we save grey water?
Well, in California the drought is pretty bad. Really bad. Really really bad. And if we reroute our grey water back into the ground we won’t have to use city water, and we will be replenishing local aquifers and the existing water levels, instead of sending the water back to a treatment plant.
After taking the class, I really want to install a 1,000 gallon rain barrel, redo our landscaping to “catch” any rain water we actually do get and install a grey water system to our washer. I would love love love to do one in our upstairs shower… but I’m not really sure if we can afford it right now.
I’ll break it all down for ya!
(I told you guys… I’m getting crazy. Just stop me before I start putting plastic containers in my shower… though I may not tell you if I do!)

Cora Jane and I took the class together. I can’t even express how much fun I have with my kids. And how fun it is to have one-on-one time with them. My kids are rad.
Your kids are rad too.
Stop reading this post now and go tell them. Then come back and finish the post.

A 1,000 gallon rain barrel seems huge… but it really isn’t (see pic below) and it is SHOCKING how much water your roof can catch. (Read my rain barrel post for more details and a video!) The logic behind the bigger barrel is to use it as much as possible in the “rainy” season and hopefully get about a month of use in the summer. Of course you are turning off your sprinklers during this time. How awesome if you had a drip system and didn’t even have to worry about sprinklers at all!

1,000 rain barrel, yo!

Redoing our landscaping – It is so important for us to keep our rain water on the land and not running down the street into the ocean. Our yard doesn’t really have any crazy landscaping. It’s a blank canvas and I would love to use our landscaping in a better way. This would even prevent your average and sprinkler runoff. And it would be easy and cheap (“just the cost of the shovel”). I love this simple video about runoff and landscaping. 8 minutes, but It’s worth a watch!

For loads of info visit his site too: http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

Now for installing a grey water system! The easiest system to install is in your washer and dryer. It would cost about $300 to have done by a professional and if you do a laundry load everyday (who doesn’t??) it would supply all the water you need for a small area of your garden. I’m hoping we can install one and it would keep my rose bushes watered and we could turn off the sprinklers permanently in that area. Buuuuut a shower system… now that would really put a dent in the water bill. We are a family of 6… wait 7… wait 8, people (shoot!), and we all take showers. Each 10 minute shower uses about 20 gallons of water (roughly 2 gallons per minute). That is 160 gallons of water A DAY that can be put back into the ground. We could install a drip system for our vegetable garden and whole yard. Squeeee! But this system can cost around $1,200 per shower. Ouch! Buuuuut it would save us about $400 a year. I want it.

I hope to share this whole journey with you! It’s small things like changing up your landscaping a bit, that can make a big impact in the world!
If you are local, check out The Ecology Center’s calendar of events here!

(I love these wooden planters. I’m going to have Brad build me some with some scrap wood we have! Details soon.)

While most of the country has been under (at least) a foot of snow, Southern California has been enjoying fantastic weather. The kind of weather that makes you want to sit on the roof and enjoy the sunset.
True Story.

But sometimes some “big” weather happens around here. The temperature falls below 70 degrees and this crazy wet stuff falls from the sky. Eeeek!
What some people are calling #Rainpocalypse came today. And we should get A LOT of rain this weekend… like a whole… (wait for it… pause for emphasis)… FOUR INCHES!
Eeeeep.
Southern California only gets about 10-15” of rain in a good year. And because of a dry few years, we are in a drought. With rain being scarce, I want to save every drop! And that’s why I bought a rain barrel. According to the rain barrel folks an 1,000 square foot roof can catch 600+ gallons of water with only 1”of rain. That’s pretty substantial for a dry area like ours.
And I’m pretty smitten with the whole idea!
Using my $25 rain barrel I can catch rain from my roof and use it to water my garden.
It’s pretty amazing!
I got my 55 gallon barrel at The Ecology Center. It attaches to the rain gutter on our house and within a few hours of light rain the bucket was FULL!
55 gallons of fresh rainwater.
Instead of becoming run-off on our oily streets and contaminating the ocean, it becomes free fresh irrigation for my garden.
Like a watering can from God. (Yes, I’m that cheesy.)
Let’s not dwell on the fact that I haven’t planted my garden yet… m’kay?
I cannot lie, as I told people about my rain barrel aspirations, I was met with mixed views.
No one was mean or negative, but laughter was involved.
And by laughter, I mean my husband almost falling of his chair with belly laughs and disbelief. “You want me to install a 55 gallon rain bucket… right before a hot summer… in a drought??? Hahahahaha…”
”No my Love, I want you to install 4.”
Shouldn’t he know by know, his wife is insane, and his life would be so boring without her?
And by ‘her’, I mean ME.
And he does.
So he installed my barrel. (Does that line sound dirty to anyone else?) And we waited 3 days for #Rainpocalypse.
And in case you were wondering, #Rainpocalypse looks like this…

(My husband went golfing with his work’s golf club. Because he works for the best company ever. They actually care about people being happy. Best.)

But even with just a few hours of rain (ok…misting) my barrel is now filled. Below is a video I shot right when I woke up this morning to let out the chickens.

Now you might be wondering why you should install a rain barrel. For me the answer is simple – it’s a Small Thing that can make a big difference.
Water from rain barrels can be used for plants during a drought. They can also be set up to slowly release collected rain fall in areas to soak up water, reducing storm runoff and increasing groundwater recharge.
If every third person in my county had only one rain barrel. And they used just that one barrel of reclaimed rain instead of city water during the year, our county would save 55 million gallons of water per year.
We would prevent runoff and keep the water on our land.
Small things. Big impact.
Unicorns and rainbows.

Just the (Rain Barrel) Facts:

1” of rain yields about 600 gallons of water from a 1,000 square foot roof. Seeing the full barrel this morning after maybe 3 hours of light rain, I’m thinking our barrel will be filled up multiple times per year for use.
My rain barrel cost $25 after rebate! I paid $100, for the whole kit including gutter attachments, spigot and tools to install from The Ecology Center. (Try to buy local.) Right now CA is offering a $75 rebate for each rain barrel you get (up to 4 per household). Go to http://www.socalwatersmart.com – click “for residential customers” – on the right click on “get your rebate here” – fill out the form, then you’ll get a confirmation email and a check in the mail. You tree hugger, you!
DIY: You can make a rain barrel for about $45, depending on the cost of the barrel. The cheapest food grade barrels I found on Craig’s List are $35 (NOT including spigot and attachments). I’m not sure if you’ll get the rebate.
The system attaches to your preexisting rain gutter and took Brad just 10 minutes to install.
You’ll want to put your rain barrel up high enough to fit a watering can under the spigot. We used stepping stones we already had. Cinder blocks or a wooden stand would work well too.
You won’t be saving tons of money with a rain barrel. City water only costs about seven cents a gallon. But can you put a price on saving the earth? Answer: No.
The water isn’t drinkable, and is best for watering a vegetable garden using a drip system or for watering non editable plants.
When the zombie apocalypse goes down, rainwater is better than no water.

Grey Water –it’s a thing and I want a system

Rain Barrel {there’s a drought going on y’all}