Same here Lydiaann, we have a water butt on each shed, 2 on our bottom greenhouse, would be very difficult to get on from the bungalow roof, because of where th drain is by the kitchen and side gate.Didnt think anyone called it global warming anymore, climate change???Th earths climate changes all the time, have read we will have an ice age, and have to adapt to that. When we had our drive done about 4 years ago, we had to put an acco drains, the drive slopes towards our bungalow anyway not onto the road, yet new build are allowed to put tarmac
On/off heavy rain here all day with some really deep rumbles of thunder
strong enough to vibrate the greenhouse. I've spent all afternoon
dodging showers to move rain water to the overflow tanks and making sure
everything is secure ready for the weather to worsen tomorrow. Strong winds
and more rain apparently. I have plenty of butt space left so bring it
on
The problem I've had though is the filters all blocked really quickly as we haven't had enough rain in ages to wash the debris off the roof. Mostly moss, dehydrated insects and stuff the birds have left up there I imagine.
I reckon I've got 700+ litres in the overflow tanks now, the dip tank in the greenhouse is full, all my watering cans are filled and ready to go and the pond is only a few inches below full.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Scotland has had it's driest/hottest June on record, and I expect July will be the same. My children have summer birthdays [one is July ] and it's rarely nice at that point- July is cold and wet on the whole. We're not used to having hot dry weather at this time of year. Yesterday might re balance the figures though as it was 1l degrees by 5pm, high wind and lashing rain - that's more like it! Water companies needs to get their act together. As Hosta says - paying out to their shareholders instead of sorting the ru**y mess their systems are in - especially in the SE of England - is disgusting. Addressing the leaking pipes and dreadful infrastructure should be a priority, but why am I not surprised that they don't seem to care.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I snuck off work on Friday and took the family to Slimbridge wetlands nature reserve for the day. On the way in I saw this nifty vertical pond system made of galvanised water troughs with overflows to cascade cup chains to slow the flow of water down. The water eventually pours over the lip of the bottom trough into a gravel drain to get the water away from the building and down to a bog garden. I like the way it pours out onto a large rock to spread the flow too. I'd like to see it in summer when the plants look at their best.
I tried to work out the holding capacity since the plants need it to hold some water at all times. The brick panel is 2015mm wide (9 bricks) and each brick course is 75mm with the joint. The bottom tank should hold about 350 litres (77 Gal) when full but it looks like only the top third is free capacity. The middle tanks probably only hold 40L (8.8 Gal) or so each so can only have 40L free capacity to keep the plants happy at most. The top tank looks empty of plants and maybe holds 90L (19.8 Gal). I couldn't get close enough to see how the overflows work sadly. I'd assume there would be a perforated pipe standing vertically with an open top maybe 1-2cm below the rim of the tanks and with more, or larger, perforations near the top. So maybe 200 litres of rain water gets slowed down by the system which is about as much volume as a large water butt.
I've set all my water butts at home to catch water and trickle it out into the drains at a much reduced rate now. It's taken a bit of tweaking to get the outflow right so they don't overflow during heavy rain though. I also have plans to collect more water just in case of a drought again next year.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I checked in with Thames Water about my very high metre readings. I had one installed in the summer, though I am still paying a flat rate, not paying for the amount it records. The metre says I have been using over double the amount I can account for. So eventually I phoned in to check. It was a very easy phone call; they had the data right to hand. And... they tell me there is indeed a leak - of a continuous 5 litres per hr, which I would imagine is coming from a garden tap dodgily installed at least ten years ago (four before I moved in).
If it is that source (and I will get checked out this week)
5 litres per hr continuously = 120 ltrs per day =
3600 pcm = over 40 000 litres a year. That's the equivalent of all my own personal usage. Over ten years - that's nearly half a million litres down the drain.
The moral is: it's worth checking if you have a leak.
Starting to fret about drought already after this mini heatwave. I realised I've still got some of my tanks set to drip and a couple have recently been put to use so most are empty. Hopefully the winter rains aren't quite done yet but apparently it's been a drier start to the year than usual although it didn't particularly seem that way here.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
There's a story on the BBC this morning scaremongering water shortages for England within the next 25 years. Probably the wrong time to release the story after all the recent rain and flooding though
I was just watching some Star Wars and they literally had a guy walking around inside a water butt pretending to be a robot. I know budgets can be tight but I have the same one and it costs £9.99 from Home Bargains. Still I know what one of the kids will be wearing for Halloween now
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Posts
Water companies needs to get their act together. As Hosta says - paying out to their shareholders instead of sorting the ru**y mess their systems are in - especially in the SE of England - is disgusting. Addressing the leaking pipes and dreadful infrastructure should be a priority, but why am I not surprised that they don't seem to care.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...