permaculture

[John Schinnerer <eco_living@yahoo.com>]

Aloha,

>... And I'm not sure if gravity alone would push water efficiently
> down to furthest hydrants since fields are relatively flat.

Water always flows down hills, no matter how flat they are... ;-)

If where the water flows into a watering trough is below where it
leaves a storage tank/pond, it will get there, no problem.  If it's a
long long ways and you use a really small pipe that will slow it down
some, but not stop it.

When you eventually get your complete keyline water system in place,
you'll always have water above where you need it and gravity will truly
be your friend! ;-)

Meanwhile, I second Mark's suggestion about a small portable gas pump
to a storage tank, or pond if you can make one cheaper than buying a
tank.  Or a direct solar-electric pump setup (more up-front cost but
less pollution and less maintenance, and also very portable), if you
have some sun every so often.

A 2000 gal. tank is usually 7-8 ft. diameter, 1000 gal. only 6 ft. -
doesn't need much space to park it unless you put it somewhere really
steep.

See if you can get a used one, a 'factory second' or
scratched-in-shipping one, something like that, or try and scrounge
something - food processing operations may have medium to large
food-grade tanks that they need to get rid of or sell cheap.  Friends
of mine got a 3000-gal tank for about half new price because it had
been sitting around unused a long time and the roof cone was smushed
down (inverted).  Didn't damage the tank any though - we got inside and
jacked the roof cone back up and stuck a piece of 4" plastic pipe in
there vertically to hold it up and it's been in use ever since, just
fine.


=====
John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
Food - Water - Shelter - Community - Technology
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! News - Today's headlines
http://news.yahoo.com