The Water Supply

The news post "Parched" has been updated with pictures of the new temporary water supply, setup as a result of the farmhouse supply completely drying up during this dry spell. The pictures illustrate each step of the process and I figured there may be some questions resulting in it! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask them here and we will do our best to reply!

Our " water cycle " from source to tap... you may see why we try to preserve every drop and are very careful with useage as the whole process from start to finish takes AGES !!! 

Are you able to drink the water from your holding tank without boiling it?   What a lot of hard work for you to have water 'on tap' ....  we don't know the half of it!  Are most of the other farms in the area in the same position as your farm or do they have water from the utilities companies?

How long does it take for one container to fill?

Margaret.... Yes, we can drink water straight from the holding tank,,, when the water tank in the loft gets below a certain level because of useage in the house, an electric pump takes it from the holding tank in the picture and pumps it upstairs into the loft tank. Any water used in the house comes from that to the various normal pipes in the house. As far as the other farms in the area are are concerned, they have deeper spring water supplies and some have boreholes... what luxury

Stephanie.... It takes about fifteen minutes for each container to gravity fill from the source well

Thanks Lynda for answering my questions.   I know from what  Dan has said that your spring water tastes much nicer than our tap water but you sure do have to work for it.  :)  How do you keep the outside tank from freezing during the winter? 

Lots of lagging Margaret and thick, old duvets !!

The water looks nice and clear from the spring. Today my tap water has kept going brown so have had to drink bottled water.  Its just a pity your spring is so far from the farm. Thanks for showing us how much work is involved to cart the water from the old spring to the farmhouse. 

Just "bumping" this as I have a feeling it may become quite topical come 6.30 tomorrow evening!

Why is that Dan?  What do you know that we dont? 

Dunno! But it may be worth tuning into North West Tonight if you can! :)

and Im very glad I had my hair done this morning..........

The feature about the water shortage at the farm was on this morning's North West Today (on Breakfast).  Not too long so hope there will be more tonight.   Lynda, your hair looks great!  :) 

thank you Margaret !! There will be a much longer article at 6.30.... they were here filming for about an hour but of course they wont use all the film they took , just the relevant stuff

Oooh exciting! I missed this morning's bit but I have setup lunchtime's and also will be able to watch the main one this evening at 6.30 all being well :)

I wonder if the feature will get everyone in the North west clubbing together to locate ancient water sources :)

Maybe we will get a call from United Utilities asking if they can purchase our technology!?

or maybe we will get a call from the utilites company offering to pay for the cost of an electric pump and relevant piping to get the water from the new spring to the farmhouse !! ...... dream on Lynda  

Oooh that would be funny. You never know! Maybe we will get a call from them saying they will pay for a bore hole to be dug too :) dream on!

Well, all the publicity cannot hurt - who knows what might come of this?  Meanwhile, I hope the rain is helping a little 

Oh, by the way, did any of the BBC crew offer to carry up some water?  I know - "It's not in my job description!"   "Talk to my union !" 

I have just watched the video I recorded last night on the feature that North West Tonight did at the farm on the water situation.   I watched the earlier ones that were televised from early yesterday morning and thought that they were good and was so pleased with the main one shown last night.  You were both wonderful and I hope it gave others food for thought about how precious our water is and shouldn't be wasted.

Can't get NW Tonight down here. The water supply seems like one big chore! I am surprised we have no problems yet as our water comes from some chalk basin somewhere and is difficult to extract (at least, that's how they justify the high charges).  Why they can't build more reservoirs to conserve the winter deluges I have no idea.  They are attractive and support water skiing and other water sports. Must be more environmentally friendly that all that drilling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2H8hfxN8Js

Here is the link to the North West Tonight feature on the water situation at Marlfield Farm

It's also on the news article :)

Just noticed that Dan.. :)  Thanks. 

And meanwhile one third of the Canadian prairies, our best farm land, is under water, so no crops could be sown in many places this yearand there will be no harvest.  Too bad we can't sort this out and find a way to distribute it fairly.

Nice to see that lovely spring in your fields.  I wonder how many days is  one supply sufficient for ?

What is the distance between the spring and the farm well?  I wonder if you cannot lay a thin pipe from the source to the well and fill it by gravity.

Is the supply sufficient for the animals too?

Nice to see you on TV,  you look nice.

HI, Yaakov - Gravity wouldn't work as it would be uphill.  The house is higher than the spring, which is down at the bottom of a field - about three fields away from the LW field.

Helen

Lo mum, has the recent rain had an effect on the water supply yet?