Working with your local plumber, and why it’s important for safety and security!
Working with your local plumber, and why it’s important for safety and security!
Not everyone realizes just how much goes into their daily water usage. When you get your water from the tap, it isn’t just magically ready to drink!
To understand what’s involved in this process, we need to take a look at some pipe anatomy!
- All pipes are made up of three separate parts, the “valve”, the “transition” and the “spigot.” These names may seem unfamiliar but doesn’t worry – you probably already have at least one of each in your house right now! Let’s start with the simplest one:
- The spigot is where you attach your hose, faucet or showerhead. The transition is what directs that flow of water to its destination. And lastly, there’s the valve. You probably guessed that this controls what direction or pressure the water is flowing in. If you think about it that makes using these three parts super easy! But there’s one more thing to keep in mind…
- Where does your water come from? Well, if you live somewhere with a natural water source like a lake or river, then you’ve got an infinite supply of fresh drinking water, no matter how much you use! However, if you’re like most people and get your water from a well – either drilled or dug – then your tap might be getting dry after just one shower! Before we get into why that happens though, let’s learn about another type of spigot called “storage.”
- The biggest difference between this spigot and the one we’ve been talking about so far is that it’s not attached to a hose, transition or valve. Instead, water flows into it from your well via pipes and then gets dispensed by gravity! This might sound like a pretty simple concept, but there’s actually a lot of engineering work that goes into what seems like such an easy process!
- The first step is to drill down deep enough to hit water. Depending on where you drill, this can take anywhere from hours to weeks!
Once you start getting wet though, your hard work is just beginning because no two wells are created equal. For example:
- If the slopes aren’t right then the hole won’t be able to hold water throughout the year
- If the well runs dry, you could lose your livestock or even your house!
- The water’s not refreshing, you will have to travel many miles away to find a better source
And if all this hard work fails? You’ll be stuck with only one option…to buy water from someone above ground! But let’s say everything goes perfectly and you wind up with an endless supply of fresh drinking water. Then what? That’s when it’s time to think about using that resource for something very important: growing food! Storing rainwater is also beneficial if things go wrong but for now, we’re just going to focus on groundwater ask your local plumber.
Now that there is plenty of water in your well. It can’t help but spill out onto the land surrounding it. That’s where your valve, transition, and spigot come in! I know they’re confusing at first. But if you want to build a healthy farm then this is what you’ll need:
So let’s say that you don’t have time or money for an advanced irrigation system like drip. How else can you get water into your soil? With rain barrels of course! If there isn’t one in front of your house already, make sure to ask your local plumber about how to set one up ASAP. A well will dry up faster than you might think so it’s vital that these are in place before the sky turns gray! Rainwater won’t last long downhill putting some on “top” of the soil isn’t a bad idea so long as there’s a spigot nearby.
Now, you might be wondering why a well would dry up in the first place… Well, if water is allowed to flow through your transition and down your spigot without any controls then it can become contaminated with “sediment” (AKA dirt). The same thing happens when people flush their toilets by pouring gallons of fresh drinking water down the drain! Feces are also full of sediment which goes into the soil if they aren’t treated properly. This is why it’s recommended that you always use grey water or at least cover black water before dumping it into your irrigation system.
Conclusion:
Whether you have a well or rely on rainfall. Covering your black water and greywater is the best way to keep sediment out of your soil. If you need help with this then be sure to check out my other article: Working with your local plumber, and why it’s important for safety and security! ” Hello y’all! Sorry about missing a few days but I was sick. So it took longer than normal to get an article finished. In case you missed it though, I’d like to point out that the previous one was about leaking spigots. In this edition, we’ll learn about why wells can run dry if they aren’t treated properly! But before we get started.