Water storage & Preparation for contamination scenarios

Well, today it happened.  The city issued a warning to all residents that the culinary water had tested positive for E-coli.  There have been a lot of questions, and frantic running to the store to buy water.   How do you properly prepare for this scenario?   Water storage, and water purification systems and products.  Be sure to scroll down to see how to care for your pets as well.

I have always kept old juice containers, washed them out and filled them with tap water to keep in the bottom of my pantry for emergencies.   This is the 2nd time this year I have had to use them.   A few months ago a water main broke at a construction site near our home, and there was no water for about 1/2 a day.   But at our house things went on as usual, we simply pulled out the jugs and used them for hand washing and drinking while waiting for the water to come back on.  Just don't forget to refill them for next time.
 If you haven't planned ahead, the best thing to do is set your largest pot or several smaller pots on the stove, fill them with water, and bring them to a boil.   Once they have boiled for 1 minute you can turn them off on let them cool.   The water is now safe to drink.




In Utah, we are always on the verge of, if not IN a drought.   Some cities are already restricting water use.  So really we should all be prepared with some type of water storage.   Ifyou are in an apartment having 55 gallon drums to store water is, of course, impractical.  This is where I recommend re-using juice containers and keeping them in the bottom of closets.   You should plan to have enough water for every person in your home for at least 72 hours.  The general recommendation for this is one gallon of water per person per day, MINIMUM.  This would not be enough for hand washing or bathing.  If you have a place to store larger amounts of water, the big 55 gallon drums are a great resource.   Many grocery stores actually carry them here in Utah, and the emergency preparedness stores.  But if you live somewhere where that is not available, you CAN order them online.   Be sure to put pallets or 2x4's under your drums if they are on cement.  Recommended long term Emergency storage is 2 Barrels per person.

55 Gallon Barrell and water use kit.

Water Storage Do's and Dont's :
Rinse and sanitize all previously used containers before storing water in them.
Do NOT use containers that were previously used for NON Food items/ Chemicals.
Store water AWAY from excess light or heat.
Do not store containers or drums directly on concrete.   Use pallets or cardboard underneath.
Do not use milk jugs.  They aren't intended for long-term use.
Plain, unscented household bleach can also be used for purifying water at the rate of 8-16 drops per gallon depending on how clear the water is to start with.



Water storage ideas/locations:
Most homes actually have at least a small amount of water storage built in.  You can find water in different areas of your home if you look closely.

Water heater tanks have 35-50 gallons of water
Reverse osmosis storage tanks usually have 2-5 gallons of water.
Even the toilet tanks on the back of the toilet contain at least a gallon of water.  (You can boil or purify it to be safe.)
If you have a swimming pool, and you maintain it well, this is a great source of water storage for emergencies.   It can be boiled and treated as well before consumption.
Also you can purchase water purification tablets to have on hand for these types of situations as well as hiking and travel to areas where pure water may not be available.

Potable Water purification Tablets

NATURAL PURIFICATION METHODS:
Colloidal silver is well known for its purification properties, as well as just putting a solid silver round or silver dollar in your water filtration device or in a jug of water.
Also you can purchase a portable UV light purification system for bottled water to purify water on the go.





Animals & Water Contamination:

I feed my animals small doses of Diatomaceous earth along with their food daily.  DE is a natural product, and has long be known to kill worms, bacterias and even e-coli, preventing them from having problems related to a tainted water supply.

"As these millions of cylinders move through the stomach and digestive tract, they attract and absorb fungi, protozoa, viruses, endotoxins, pesticides, and drug residues, E.coli, and heavy metals. These are trapped inside the cylinder and passed out of the body. In addition, any larger parasites that happen to be in the stomach or digestive tract are "cut up" and killed by the sharp edges of the Diatomaceous Earth. "

Food Grade DE would even be suitable in preventing these issues in humans, should we not be able to get our hands on pure water.  If you don't have DE on hand, I recommend obtaining some for future emergencies to prepare for your pets needs as well as your own.

Animals are just as susceptible to the symptoms as we are, but this is an easier way to keep them healthy long term, and not have to react in emergencies, since they are already being dosed regularly.

Past Gardening Methods - Show and Tell!

The 4th and final post in the "6 Rules of Gardening" series.

     When you're a gardener, you're an experimenter, a scientist of sorts.  You research, gather information, and attempt to prove the validity of said information by putting the concepts into practice.  There is definitely a learning process involved, and in trying new things sometimes we fall backward rather than moving forward along the progression.  Ok, lets be honest, sometimes we catapult backward 150 miles an hour, and wonder what the heck we did wrong.  But at my house, I call that "Adventure!"

     My first real garden was probably around the Summer of 2000.  The hubby and I borrowed a gigantic moose tiller from a neighbor to loosen up our mouse sized garden plot.  Lets just say that was quite a job!  Then we formed wide raised rows, covered them with black plastic, cut holes in it and planted started plants from the nursery.   It was a beautiful garden with a bountiful harvest.   I don't remember all the things we grew, but I do remember cutting off tons of stems of green tomatoes right before a big frost, and bringing them inside in boxes to ripen.  This method seemed to work ok, but I was amazed how many weeds still grew beneath the plastic, and made their way over to the holes where the plants were growing.  Not to mention it was a heck of a lot of work.

I actually found some pictures of it!  Hooray!   Click to Enlarge!

 

 The next few years at our next home, we grew corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, and gourds.  Seemingly without struggle, if I remember.  With the exception of weeds.  (I hate weeds by the way... I don't consider weeding therapeutic as some do.   If I'm gardening, I want results, not weeds. :-) )  Heres a fun story:

I remember we had a tiny little gourd plant that wasn't doing well.  It lost 3 of its only 4 leaves within the first week we planted it.  I thought for sure it was a goner.  Then one day my sister-in-law came by and I showed her my garden.  She asked about the sad little plant and I told her it would probably die.  She knelt down, caressed the plant, named it Joe, and told it to be fruitful and multiply, or something like that.  Then she kissed the leaf, got up and walked away.  I stood there thinking what a crazy loon!    The next day the last leaf fell off.  "Pah!" I thought, "talking to plants... whatever!"  Well 2 days after that the plant had new growth.  A week later it had 4 or 5 new leaves.  And every day after that it seemed to double in size.  Within a few short weeks it had vined and traveled to the back fence a few feet away.  That one plant grew enough vines to cover the entire back fence (We're talking 20 feet or so) and produced more than 150 gourds that summer.  It was the nuttiest thing I had ever seen.  Still I wasn't about to put the plant whisperer on any pedestals quite yet.

Another move, another chance to setup my garden.  This time I chose Square foot gardening.  My hubby helped me to build vinyl boxes, and we even ran water lines directly to the boxes.  I used "Mel's Mix" (A recommended soil mix in the Square foot gardening book) to fill the boxes, and I planted.  The ground in this new home was like solid bedrock.   When were planting our fruit trees, I bought both the boys their very own Pick Axe.  And every time they dug a hole, they came up with an 18 inch boulder.  It was a miracle we got anything in the ground at all, and an even greater miracle that it grew.   I liked the garden boxes, but I noticed that there was too much drainage.  The mix did not provide enough water holding properties and my garden was always dry.  We did still have a beautiful garden, and produced alot of food.  We even greenhoused it at the end of the season and kept tomatoes growing into December until the weight of the snow collapsed the plastic and the PVC supports.

I do like the SFG concept of growing lots of food in small spaces, AND I learned alot about vertical growing.  I grew a couple of 15 lb. Banana squash' vertically on the trellises I learned to make on the SFG website.  But I don't think the soil mix is ideal in the area I live in.  The weather here is much too dry.    I have pictures of this somewhere, but I couldn't locate them quickly, so I'll try to update this later.

I think what I'm getting at is that no one method is the "be all" and "end all" of gardening, and I think we can learn a lot by trying different methods.  And its FUN to learn new things, so by all means, try stuff!

When we moved into our current house, it was June, and I was desperate to get a garden in and growing as quickly as possible.  So I scanned the yard and tried to see what would be the easiest location to tackle quickly.   I decided to use the 6 inches of dirt between our block retaining wall and the fence.  Plus it was waist height and easy to care for.

Click to Enlarge!

I got over 300 tomatoes that year off of just a couple plants!

All the tomatoes, butternut squash, peppers, and cucumbers are from the garden.  It was so pretty I decided to decorate with it!

I have to be honest, my garden as evolved and changed every year, but I love it!  The last few years I have been using the mulching strategies I learned in the Back to Eden film,  and I feel like it has changed the whole game, and made things more doable.  I'm getting older, and could be in better shape, so the less physical maneuvering involved, the better!  Please, Please, Please!!!  Take time to watch the film.  If you love to garden, it will be time well spent!   Good luck, and please post your questions and feedback below!  I'd love to answer garden questions you may have and help you have a successful year!

Also search "Garden" at the top of the page to find all of my other posts on Gardening and see photos of my more recent gardens, raspberry boxes, and more!