A lot of people I know locally are pretty "environmentally conscious" (ugh that sounds so prim) but that may just be because I tend to gravitate toward that crowd!

All the master gardeners here are into water catchment, heirloom growing, permaculture and other right-headed thinking.

I know you're not prim Dave

I remember way back in the 70's, maybe even before you were born, Hank was building a solar panel thingy for the barn. Seems like we always marched to the tune of a different drummer but there were a lot of drummers that agreed with us

Ditto on the drummers! Let's hear for the drummers!

Congrats on your 4" of rain, Dave. Good going.

I'm the water-catching type with the barrels, too. Some are 55 gallon, one is 350 (gifted to me from someone who "would never use it"). My gain, their loss, eh?

I also have a Lowe's/Home Depot electric sump pump-type thing that lowers into the bottom of a barrel and you can hook a water hose to it, plug it in and it really pumps the water wherever you need it. It works great and was only about $40.00 or so, lasts a lot of years. Perfect to soak a compost/manure bag in a 55 gallon barrel for a few days then pump that 55 gallons into my big 350 which normally has 300 gallons already. That is the perfect dilution for using the tea on the garden, potted plants/nursery plants etc and is easily done by just sticking the pump into the 350. Works great.

Now your barn catch system I'm sure will have much more finesse, Dave. I'm glad you can do that in Texas. I hope you make a huge underground cistern to collect it all in.

Shoe ("environmentally conscious" or "right-headed" as Dave said.)
"I'd rather be right-headed than bone-headed any day!"

An underground cistern does sound good. I have to admit I haven't gotten that far yet, though. I have the barn completely designed and I'm already starting to put together bids from locals on building it. I know I'll be putting gutters in and catching all the run-off water, but exactly how and what is something that I think I'll contemplate after the structure is up and I have a chance to see it in real life.

The barn is going on one of the highest spots of our land, so this means that a lot of gardening can be done below the barn and gravity can deliver the water down.

An underground cistern does sound very intriguing...

Well, the underground cistern came to mind because some of my older friends said that's what they did many years ago. Apparently being underground kept the water cool and halted a lot of the potential bacteria. And these were also used as drinking water cisterns. Then again, I guess it's a catch-22, if it's in the ground I guess you have to pump it out, if it is above ground you can use gravity.

By the way, you mentioned your stash and "I'd post a picture but it's the messy part of the property, as you can imagine."

Nowadays those "junk piles" are better known as a "resource area"! That's where you go to pull items from for your next creation, building project, etc. Enjoy it!

Shoe (off to feed chickens and gather eggs....)

Resource area We have a lot of those

When Hank was a child, the house they lived in had a cistern for the house water and the very first house we lived in when we were first married had a cistern. So I guess that makes us your "older" friends, eh Shoe?

"So I guess that makes us your "older" friends, eh Shoe?"

Hah! NOT! Ya'll are probably my younger older friends! Most of my 'older friends' are in their 80's and 90's....ya'll are still whippersnappers!