What’s that noise outside? Better not be the deer munching on the bitter pith of the tree fern again! That dastardly act would get me out of bed. What an outrage to have woken me when the sun has not yet stuck its nose above the horizon. The world is rarely in focus at such early hours. Still, always wise at such moments to get an idea of what was going on outside. Listening intently revealed a bit of wind, but what was that other noise? Sounds like rain, yeah what a pleasant surprise. It’s been a while since the wet stuff fell from the sky. The cold air blowing in the window was also a sure sign that the season is turning towards winter. Chucked another blanket on to ward off the chill, rolled over, then slept the remaining hours soundly thinking only happy thoughts of dodging the summer daily watering chores.
Rainfall has been a bit light during the hot summer months of February and March, but things are far worse in other southerly parts of this continent. It’s been an unusual growing season too. Daytime temperatures weren’t even close to their records (how’s 45’C / 113’F work for you?) But overall it’s been mostly hot days, and dry too. The tall forest trees with their massive root systems (which can access the deeper ground water) are enjoying the conditions and display a luxuriant canopy. Lesser trees and the other forest plants are struggling.
Surprisingly, the established fruit trees in either the shady or sunny orchard, have merely shrugged off the hot and dry conditions and appear unfazed. That result is probably due to the regular soil feeding regime they’ve been enjoying for many years. The ground cover plants in the orchard however, well, they died weeks ago. This of course probably reduces evaporation from the soil. None of those fruit trees have been watered this summer, and they’re still growing. However, the youngest trees in the large 600m2 / 6,500ft2 citrus enclosure are an entirely different story. They’ve grown well, but have required daily watering (a small bucket each per day). That’s a constant drain on our finite water storages.
We went into summer with full water tanks too. Now, three and a bit months later, the water reserves are not looking all that great. Two weeks ago the water level in the 50,000L / 13,200 gallon house water tanks was somewhere between my knee and waist level. Put it this way, the technical words to describe this is: ‘Chris is having a total freak out moment!’ There wasn’t much water left in those large tanks. The house system does have an overflow reserve tank of 33,500L / 8,800 gallons capacity, but that had been drained weeks beforehand. And all the longer term weather forecast was showing was more hot weather and no rain. Not good.
Fortunately the long line of water tanks attached to the machinery shed were about two thirds full. They hold 35,500L / 9,300 gallons of storage. Most of the water in that system had been used in the greenhouse and also applied to the young fruit trees in the citrus enclosure mentioned previously. A plan rapidly formed to supplement the house water supplies from this system.
We can move fast when required. Potentially running out of water in the house system is a fine motivator! For the past two weeks, most other farm non-harvest activities have come to a screaming halt whilst we address the immediate water issues. Regular readers will recall that a powerful new electric pump was installed last week. That machine is used to bring water from the machinery shed system back uphill into the house tanks. At least 10,000L / 2,600 gallons have since been lifted uphill using the off grid solar power of the sun. That’s a relief!
Once the immediate issue was resolved, the mind began considering the water system here, and how best to minimise future water issues. It might sound like we have a lot of storage capacity, and use a lot of water, but the reality is that the entire property (house, garden and all) survives on usage which is less than a 1,000L per day. It’s not bad given there are two people, three dogs, chickens, bees plus the sheer size and productivity of the garden. Even the local birds water needs were catered for.
A decision was made to order two additional 5,500L / 1,500 gallon water tanks. A bit of extra storage capacity can only help, plus it is always wise with natural systems to have more than you need, just in case. Variability of supply is a real issue which cannot be wished around. Incidentally, Australia is quite good at making these large plastic water tanks, and there is a ready market for them. Shame that the last polyethylene manufacturer (the raw materials used in tank production) on this continent apparently ceased operations only a few months ago.
Anyway, as part of the other envisioned changes to the water systems, a permanent water pipe was also deemed necessary. The pipe will be used to send water uphill to the house from either the machinery shed system, or the house big overflow reserve tank. A side branch of that pipe will also supply water to the sapling fenced enclosure where the pumpkins currently grow. One water pipe to rule them all! At the very least, it will be a simpler system than what is currently in place.
About half of the long uphill water pipe has now been installed. By the time that the completed line reaches the house water tanks, there’ll be about 70m / 230ft of water pipe. With the hot and dry weather, it sure has been challenging to dig the long trench using hand tools whilst exposed to the unrelenting sun. At least the electric jackhammer makes the job a bit easier. The ground has been compacted over the years in that area, and then baked hard by the summer sun. It’s like concrete that stuff.
The new pipe project is about half done now, and presently ends at the sapling fence enclosure. The pumpkins growing in that enclosure do not appreciate dry weather. Those plants love the heat, just not the dry, which suggests that they evolved in a hot area probably next to a river. That’s not the climate here, but we can at least replicate some of the conditions.
Just to geek out a bit. The water pipe is not your usual thin poly-pipe. It’s very strong UV stable stuff known down under as ‘rural green line’, and it should have a long lifespan. The connections are good enough to be buried and not thought of again for a long time. It’s my preference to not bury connections, but sometimes there is little choice in the matter.
When draining water from the machinery shed storage system, we were able to fully empty two of the water tanks and fix a couple of minor issues with those tanks. One of the tanks is smaller than all the rest and also of a different design so it needed to be slightly elevated in height. Water was occasionally oozing out the top during very heavy rain, and that’s not ideal.
With the small tank now empty, we were able to make a round pad using concrete pavers and rock crusher dust so as to increase the height above the soil level. The small particles of rock compact beautifully and because of their diminutive size are unlikely to pierce the plastic walls of the tank.
Next came the largest water tank in the long line. That one had developed a slight down hill lean. The soil compacted, plus there was a 5.9 earthquake a few years ago, and just the general and unrelenting effects of gravity caused the lean. Anyway, the downhill edge of the water tank now sits on a similar concrete paver based sturdy pad, and has been righted.
It’s worth mentioning that the large rock wall you can see in the above image, is a recent project which also supports soil far better than previously. The intention is to continue improving that large rock wall over the next few weeks and months.
And just because we hadn’t done enough work this week, on a very hot Saturday I dragged the welder out, grabbed a whole bunch of scrap steel, and made a sturdy cover for the water pump. By the end of that day, I was done. Only an icecream and some rehydration solution could resolve the cooked brain situation.
It’s been a big week, and the pump cover was installed at the last moment, because Sunday morning it finally rained. Rain is a beautiful thing.
Earlier in the week a thunderstorm rolled over the valley but mostly missed us. The sound and light show were awesome. We made a bonus video of the storm. Who doesn’t love the sound of a good thunderstorm?
This week’s usual video is of the work done on the water tanks:
The city is a cosy womb which provides some nice stuff. There are weeks where I can see the appeal, then I start thinking about weird issues that few people seem to notice. Like the lack of insect life. Then thoughts return to rural life. Even with the hot and dry weather, this place jumps with life. The birds, bees and other insects sure have appreciated the steady supply of water this summer:
Hot and dry summers do tend to produce the biggest harvests, if you have the water. Here’s what we harvested one day last week:
The thing with harvests is learning how to preserve them, and it’s no different a problem to working out how to survive as a household and farm on rainfall alone. The peaches were eaten fresh. The chilli’s are air dried and used over the year. The larger tomatoes are placed in the dehydrator and then stored as chips in olive oil. The remaining produce is eaten fresh.
The pumpkin harvest continues, and the stores are fast filling up.
The tomatoes in the greenhouse receive very little water most days, but now I’m reducing that even further so that the vines die back and spend their remaining energies ripening the unharvested fruit. The garden beds in the greenhouse need to be cleared by the end of this month so that we can start seeds for the winter crops like radishes, beetroot, mustard and kale before it gets too cold for the plants.
The chilli plants enjoy a bit more care and attention because in the greenhouse, they can live for up to six years. They do get rather unwell looking during the depths of winter, but they bounce back, mostly.
Zucchini continue to produce their huge fruit and hopefully the rain causes them to grow even faster than usual.
Excluding the citrus which supplies ripe fruit in the winter months, the very last of the summer produce are the kiwi-fruit. Despite the hot and dry summer, the vines are laden in berries. They just won’t be ripe to eat until June.
Those fruit are a little bit at risk this year from Kuato the super fat possum. I have never seen a possum bigger than this one, and now I know the mouth that a good percentage of the apple and pear crop has disappeared into. He’s more than tubby.
He’s so big now that only a Powerful owl might able to deal with him, maybe. Look at the claws! Where’s a Powerful Owl when you need one?
I have to move on – Onto the flowers!
The temperature outside now at about 9am is 6’C (43’F). So far for last year there has been 109.8mm (4.3 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 96.6mm (3.8 inches)