Here in the Catalan Garden it’s getting hot…And, the rainwater barrels are running dry…

I’m not complaining (as if).  But it does bring us back to our summer routine of regular watering of all the organic veggies plus the treasured few flowers happy to withstand the soaring temperatures and baked earth (yes its mostly geraniums!).  Then there are three dogs, a cat and a handful of chickens all drinking triple the amount of water they do in the cooler months.  Add to that the necessity of myself and BigD needing an awful lot of showers to ensure we remain pleasantly scented throughout the sticky stinky months and water (or lack of it) is constantly on our minds.

Our underground water cistern ran dry a month or two back and now we’re relying on the external water cisterns which we’d filled in the spring.  Harvesting rainwater has kept us supplied with rainwater since early September so we’re not doing too badly.  But you really never can have too many ways of storing rainwater or recycling greywater.

Our greywater recycling system is rather basic at present (but it works) and we could always use some more ways of harvesting rainwater from the torrential downpours which always seem to arrive shortly after all the cisterns are full, so I’m going to find out what else we could do to improve things here.  Don’t get me wrong we’re no longer collecting water as we need it from a bucket and chain.  Though the novelty of the battery powered water pump soon fades when you realise just how inconvenient a flat battery is mid-shower.  Hot water was a long-time coming but is still joyfully appreciated.

Living without a water supply has been a challenge, but mostly quite an enjoyable one (cold outside showers not withstanding).  We’ve learnt to adapt our cosy suburban ways and found lots of ways to reuse, recycle and save water.  But, as we enter the summer and with it the need to call up Joaquin for a water delivery we know we need to do more.  Each year we rely less on his tractor deliveries and more on the winter rainfall so I can dream that one day we’ll have so many water storage devices we’ll last all year long!

You guessed it guys, this month (or week I suppose it depends on if we have any rain or not) is Rainwater Barrel Month.  Since I shall be spending the next few months watching water levels, timing showers and generally being rather obsessed with Agua I thought I’d share!

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