Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> In the mean time, the dry took its toll on the creek.  It was still flowing 
> but not enough to operate a RAM pump.
This is another reason to have a holding tank to feed into the downpipe 
of a ram pump, besides excluding sediment and bubbles.  You can save up 
a day's water and just pump it once a day to the main gravity-feed 
storage tank.  This siphon stage requires a small vertical drop of its 
own, so in extreme cases like ours, where there is barely three feet of 
vertical drop, a very shallow holding tank is in order, so as to not 
take up much of the vertical drop (fortunately the problem I mentioned 
previously about having too slow a trickle through the downpipe isn't 
likely to happen with piping of at least 1/2", so nearly always the 
holding tank can be just inches tall).

We have a plan to siphon water a short distance over to a small holding 
tank, from which the downpipe will angle downhill about 100' to the ram 
pump.  It's no longer necessary for us to have a _large_ holding tank 
just to run the ram pump, since it's now just a winter project, but 
there are too many obstructions right near the water source, and the 
downpipe should not curve.

For those blessed with hilly terrain, the bottom of a storage tank can 
easily be higher than the destination of the water, in many cases, so 
just siphoning works for me.  For those with level ground, a small bilge 
pump from the marine supply will pump even dirty water on 12V from a 
reasonably small solar panel (suitable for immediate, two-fisted 
watering).  I'm considering just digging round pits in the ground and 
lining them with ordinary greenhouse plastic film, which I find 
incredibly durable (when holey and scratched, the remains still function 
as shade cloth for plants).

It may be a little difficult to have a below-ground tank feed a ram 
pump, since it's not convenient to tap from the side.  But you can just 
siphon (on a hill, which we can assume exists, if you're considering a 
ram) to a tiny intermediate tank close by, and let the downpipe take off 
from there.  (Actually, the more little holding tanks there are between 
the source and the ram, the less sediment will enter it.)

I've decided on a 32' x 16' x 4' pond in the low spot where nettle now 
grows.  I don't think I'll let the geese in, though, if it's supposed to 
water the garden, but keep it covered.  They appreciate even a small 
pond, and I can still siphon their waste water to real water-lovers 
downhill from there, like peaches, or use the bilge pump to move the 
water uphill.  It's the same amount of water either way, so why not 
arrange things so that the largest pond stays clean?  I've worked out 
the details, and our pond should provide enough water to cover 1500 sq. 
ft. of beds for the summer.

Bill
S. Oregon coast