Sustainable living

[lblanchard]

This post by slawson01 led me to this journal entry by a survivalist, which in turn led me to this YouTube video on urban homesteading by an old hippie:

I guess once you agree you want to take responsibility for your own life, it doesn't matter whether your demon du jour is the evil corporation or the evil government. If you control your food, water, and heat supply you control your destiny.

And now I think I'll go eat a homegrown tomato and think about rain barrels and homesteads in Tunkhannock or some such...

Comments

[slawson01.livejournal.com]

I typed this up a few hours ago in response to someone's question about water filters. I couldn't post it because you need to be a member of the community and I'm not, so here you go.

A spring type filter is cheap and effective, but requires space. You can build a gravity fed, multistage filter that will yield awesome results using four barrels, a couple perforated steel plates, some gravel, a bunch of sand, a few plumbing couplings, and one valve. This will deal with any water that is not salt water no matter what is in it.

First an input barrel, at the highest elevation. (On a platform or slightly higher on a hill) Make a hole near the bottom of the barrel and run a pipe down so that it enters the next barrel at the bottom also. Inside this next barrel place about 10cm of gravel on the bottom and them one of the perforated steel plates, then add the finest sand you can get so that it is between 30-35cm thick. This is fast sand filter, it will clean the water so that it is clear. Clear water is a requirement if the next step is going to function properly.

Near the top of your second barrel (the one with the fast sand filter in it) make a hole and run a pipe to a hole near the top of the next barrel which, again, should be slightly lower. This third barrel will contain a slow sand filter. At the bottom make hole and run a pipe out to the fourth barrel, add about 10cm of gravel and then the second perforated steel plate, then add more of that fine sand so that it is just a 5-10cm from the inlet pipe at the top. Place a small, flat rock on top of the sand where the water feeds in so it doesn't make a divet in the sand. This slow filter will grow a layer that will filter out bacteria, cysts, etc. There is a specific term for this layer, but I can't think of it right now.

The fourth barrel is the catch barrel. It holds your clean drinking water.

The layer in the thrid barrel will get very thick over time and you will need to clean it to improve flow. (As the layer gets thicker the water moves through it more slowly.) To clean it close the valve from the second barrel to the thrid barrel and allow the water level to drain down about 30cm below the top of the sand. Let things dry out and the remove the layer. If you are using this set up for just one or two people then you will most likely have enough water in your storage tank to last you while you are cleaning the third tank. If you are supplying 10-15 people with it, you will want multiple slow filter tanks so you can switch between them to keep flitering water all the time while you clean the layer from ones that have gotten too thick.

Or you can buy a filter like a berkey. It will cost a lot more to buy, requires replacement parts once in a while, but it's a lot less work on the front end and the upkeep is much easier. (even though cleaning the layer is quite easy)

I have a PDF with pictures where I got this information, but I'm at work right now (full shift of doubletime FTW!) So I will share that with you later if I remember.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm in an Xtreme Urban situation ("yard" is about 200 sq ft of mostly concrete, tomato plants are in containers). We're also five blocks downwind of a co-gen plant. If I ever set up a rain barrel, it will probably be to water the plants. Also, I'm about six blocks north of a neighborhood that can best be described as a war zone. If things are messed up enough that the water doesn't work here, we have trouble of all kinds, not the least of which will be the ravening mobs looking to break in.