Water Harvest Shed - Ready to collect rain!

Sunday my brother Kenny and I headed out to complete the water harvest shed. The wind gusted constantly making the gutter installation a bear - to which Kenny commented while drilling another gutter screw hole, "ya know, professional gutter installers would be taking today off." But I didn't let him off that easy and we kept trucking such that by noon we finished installing the gutter and by 2:30 we installed and plumbed in the tank. Along the way neighbors dropped by brimming with questions and admiring the work, and one time as a pair of neighbors drove by in a golf cart the wind whipped their words by me, something to the effect, "(he) put the tank inside the shed!"

As another testament to the wonderful neighbors I've mentioned before, we were given several peach tree rootings that afternoon from their father's productive orchard. I can't get over how great everyone is around here! 

As before, I'll let the pictures tell most of the story. In the last picture, the tank looks small within the shed because it is a temporary tank adequate to irrigate the first year of peach trees. Next year this 330 gallon tank will be moved outside the shed and replaced with a 1500 gallon tank. Together the 1830 gallons will provide sufficient water for an orchard of more than 20 trees, requiring supplemental water only in case of extended drought.  As for the shed, all that's left is to install next weekend is the gable end trim. Later in the year, after building savings back up, we will install floors and walls around the tool shed part of the building.

Construction Team!

Details of the system

Steeling The Water Harvest Shed - Roofing, that is.

Inge had to work this weekend so my brother Kenny and I tackled the steel roofing without our construction supervisor. The weather forecast a few days ago was for a sunny breezy day today - they got that wrong on both counts. The good news was that the breezy part was wrong to the good side - it was, for Texas, a reasonably calm day. The sunny part of the forecast was wrong to the bad side though. We endured a cloudy drizzle almost all day. This made for slippery work installing the steel panels. I spent most of the day on the ladder and Kenny spent the day on the roof. I passed him panels, screwed the bottom down and he screwed the top and middle. And here we have a few photos of the work and the finished product.

Dark Dreary Drizzly Day - Roofin'

Last Panel - Is that blue up there?

Ridge Cap almost done

Roofed Shed - Gutters and Tank tommorrow!

Gardening on the Home Front

No Die Weide work today because our backyard raised bed gardens called for our attention. However, to tie this activity back to a mention of Die Weide, I'll discuss my hopes for a two location garden strategy. A couple of pictures accompanies many levels of discussion.

Puppy De-Fenced Garden

Over the last four years I've constructed four raised garden beds and a grape arbor in our back yard. I constructed the latest addition, a picket fence, in defense of puppy digging. The back bed in this photo once stood verdantly filled with two years worth of strawberry plantings. This year we hoped to harvest our first serious bounty of strawberries. But two months of puppy digging deprived us of any hope of home grown strawberries this year.

Inge scattered a mixture of wildflower seeds we received as a Christmas gift which is now poking green into the foreground of the photo. We planted this same patch in corn last year, which produced nothing, and in potatoes two years ago, which produced a very nice bucket of potatoes which we enjoyed.

Compost Corner

Above is a photo of our compost corner. Two halves of a portable wire dog cage saw second duty as a pair of compost heaps. Later I added stakes and wire to enclose a third heap between the two enclosures. Today, I scooped out the rich compost from the two bins and worked them into the raised beds, along with some bags of manure from home depot.

So how does this relate to Die Weide? It is my hope that this year we will plant the backyard garden with the primo veggies, like tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and lettuce. On Die Weide, I will dig up a small garden area into which we will plant the bulky and space consuming vegetables like potatoes, black-eyed peas, corn, perhaps some squash (though Inge and I aren't big fans of squash) and the sweet non-vegetables, watermelon and cantaloupe. Inge and I both have our doubts about this remote garden, but for different reasons. She doubts the water harvesting shed will produce enough water for a garden (for which I respond, God will provide), and I worry that a lightly attended garden will be gnawed away by the critters. Hopefully I can scrounge up enough fencing material to keep the critters at bay. One thing I don't worry about is the ability of Die Weide to produce. The soil there is richer than any soil I've worked with in my life. But any soil can be deprived of ability to provide a bounty if not replenished. On Die Weide I will construct the simple shipping crate compost heaps into which we will pile grasses cut from around the orchard, and eventually manure from the livestock we will graze.

A Shedding We Will Go!

Weekend two of shed construction. We completed the roof rafters Friday afternoon and Saturday we screwed on the fascia board roof sheathing. Wrestling oriented strand plywood boards up onto the shed rafters was a bit challenging with two people and a breeze. Fortunately, the wind didn't get really stiff until after we finished screwing the boards down.

Kenny, my brother, camped Thursday through Sunday on Die Weide. He has camped for years and has all the supplies for a nice camp site. I'm envious! You can see his tent under the picnic pecan. Before the month of March is over with I intend to camp out at Die Weide too.

Did you see the pickup next to the shed? There's a story behind that too. Pressure Treated 4x6 posts warp at a sneeze and Kenny noticed a warped lean on the shed, so he backed his truck against the offending post and ratcheted a 2x6 board to the warped post to straighten it out until we get the sheathing on.

Construction Supervisor

I ordered the metal roofing supplies to be picked up this week. Along with the gutters, I hope we will have the shed ready to collect rain next week.

Water Harvest Shed - Construction Begins

Fact - One inch of rain falling on one square foot of roof can gather 0.623 gallons of water. However, with evaporation, flush systems, and gutter overflow losses, using 0.5 gallons per inch per square foot is a more realistic estimate. For a shed roof of 12x22 ft dimensions every one inch rainfall event can collect 132 gallons of water. Die Gruene Weide is in an area that has an annual average rainfall of 34 inches, for a potential of almost 4500 gallons of "free" water. Free after the cost of the shed and gutters and tank, that is. Considering the water company wants us to fork over almost $5 grand to put in a water meter, and still have monthly payments for the water consumed, the ~$2 grand for the shed and tank and free water thereafter will be a bargain.

To start with I purchased a food-grade 330 gallon tank that will be sufficient for the first four trees of our modest orchard plans. Next year, the water tank I intend to install within our budget and water use model is a 1500 gallon tank, which should be enough to water at least 18 trees.

Tank, in hand (or on land) it became imperative to start shed building. Especially since Inge was skeptical that we could fill the tank. I wagered that by the beginning of summer, the tank would be at least half full. In order for the tank to be half full, I needed to start the shed! For this blog, I'll let the pictures tell the story - which occurred over two days.

Lunch Fit for Construction Work!

Another Round of New Critters

We spent both Saturday and Sunday out at Die Weide to start building the water harvesting shed. However, this blog is about critters. Saturday we went to the NW corner in the "deep woods" to gather the SD card from critter cam. And deep woods was full of new critters. On this batch of candid cams we caught a squirrel (which I'm not bothering to post) and an opossum and an armadillo. Interestingly I've seen lots of signs of digging around back there and assumed it was wild boar, which is possible. But seeing the armadillo reminded me that they have a reputation of being diggers too. But after you take a look at the critter cam photos below, hang around - I've got another new furry friend photo to show you below the critter cam photos.

Primo Possum

Armadillo Crossing

Approaching Armadillo

The following critter comes with its own story - Where we needed to place the shed happened to be where we had tossed brambles and vines from copse clearing efforts. So we had to move the bramble pile to a new location. After we moved the pile I mowed the area and started unloading lumber. A few minutes after we got started, Inge looked down and saw this critter (cute!)

Field Mouse on Die Weide

Close up Field Mouse on Die Weide