Hmmm, after a very long time with little rain to speak of, over yesterday afternoon and last night, my huge 187 litre rain barrel has filled up. The rain barrel has a secondary 120 litre rain barrel. Well, actually, that secondary one is the old barrel from the water softener unit that my Daughter gave me when they got the new unit. So I have a whole lotta room to gather rain water. And I do. The eve from our roof has a downspout that goes into the top of the rain barrel. The rain barrel has an opening that has like mosquito netting attached, so no bugs go into it.
I had all but used up the last of the rain barrels' water. This has been the most wonderful tool this summer for watering my little planters, washing all my veggies that come out of my garden, and just well, watery stuff. It is very pleasant to fill up big pails, wash the vegetables, and then place them into a secondary container to be cleaned. It has been many a pleasant, but hot summer day that I have sat outside beneath the cool of our porch roof, washing and processing vegetables, readying for winter. I have much food that I have prepared, frozen and preserved by canning. We are almost winter ready. The gardens are slowly being put to bed, but still much food yet to be processed. Thankin' my lucky stars that I have these rain barrels, to wash my food clean as clean can be, by floating and draining. I could use the kitchen tap, but my total preference is the rain water that is so clean (well, I think it is clean, it looks very clean and smells very clean, smiling).
My quandary here is, Ol' Man Winter is just hiding around the corner. I know in less than a month that the freeze will commence, maybe sooner, but not hard, frozen rock solid freeze for some time yet. The rain barrels will be put to rest for the winter. My second winter here, so kind of have an idea of what cold is. Back on the coast, the temperatures during wintertime usually remained above zero celsius. Well, of course, in January and sometimes earlier, there can be a cold spell of freezy weather, but it was of a short duration. So our first winter here was quite a surprise.
About 3 feet of snow at the peak, which lasted right from December right until the middle of March, and then all craziness broke out with the thaw!! Oh the thaw!! I remember using the water pump to pump all that water off the driveway going to our place, to a lower spot, days of pumping water for several hours a day, that was a whole lot of freezy water melting. Oh brother, me ramblin', I was on the topic of rain barrels.
Sheesh...I have a full big barrel of water again, and the other barrel is half full. Lots of water has come down from those skies above.
Rats, kind of losing track of what I am trying to get across.
Right. OK, I use the rain water for washing things, I also use the rain water for cooking things. I think the rain water is better than the well water here. We don't drink the well water, we use bottled water for everything ingested. The well water is good, it does not have any bad odours, I just have a thing about not trusting well water for immediate drinking. I can cook with it, but it is so much easier and makes me feel so good to just go and get a pot of beautiful, cool rainwater from my barrel.
I want to bring a few good gallons of the rainwater into my home for use during the wintertime, for human consumption. I know that water can and will go bad over time. My simple question to a very long and convaluted post is this.
If I were to put one drop of chlorine into a gallon of water for storage, would this preserve water? I know city water is chlorinated and the human being drink this "preserved" water. One drop of bleach into a gallon of water would not harm (well, I hope it would not harm, that is a very small ratio of chlorine to water).
Would this work to preserve water for some time? Is there other, better methods of preserving this water gathered in my barrels? I need to know. Because I will be bringing in rainwater for storage. It can't stay outside, it will freeze solid. Thoughts here on my thoughts would be listened to with great interest. So bring the comments on! Tell me if you think my process of thought is off the wall, if it is good, I am a big girl and can take anything said to me, smiling. Beautiful and wonderful days, CynthiaM.
I had all but used up the last of the rain barrels' water. This has been the most wonderful tool this summer for watering my little planters, washing all my veggies that come out of my garden, and just well, watery stuff. It is very pleasant to fill up big pails, wash the vegetables, and then place them into a secondary container to be cleaned. It has been many a pleasant, but hot summer day that I have sat outside beneath the cool of our porch roof, washing and processing vegetables, readying for winter. I have much food that I have prepared, frozen and preserved by canning. We are almost winter ready. The gardens are slowly being put to bed, but still much food yet to be processed. Thankin' my lucky stars that I have these rain barrels, to wash my food clean as clean can be, by floating and draining. I could use the kitchen tap, but my total preference is the rain water that is so clean (well, I think it is clean, it looks very clean and smells very clean, smiling).
My quandary here is, Ol' Man Winter is just hiding around the corner. I know in less than a month that the freeze will commence, maybe sooner, but not hard, frozen rock solid freeze for some time yet. The rain barrels will be put to rest for the winter. My second winter here, so kind of have an idea of what cold is. Back on the coast, the temperatures during wintertime usually remained above zero celsius. Well, of course, in January and sometimes earlier, there can be a cold spell of freezy weather, but it was of a short duration. So our first winter here was quite a surprise.
About 3 feet of snow at the peak, which lasted right from December right until the middle of March, and then all craziness broke out with the thaw!! Oh the thaw!! I remember using the water pump to pump all that water off the driveway going to our place, to a lower spot, days of pumping water for several hours a day, that was a whole lot of freezy water melting. Oh brother, me ramblin', I was on the topic of rain barrels.
Sheesh...I have a full big barrel of water again, and the other barrel is half full. Lots of water has come down from those skies above.
Rats, kind of losing track of what I am trying to get across.
Right. OK, I use the rain water for washing things, I also use the rain water for cooking things. I think the rain water is better than the well water here. We don't drink the well water, we use bottled water for everything ingested. The well water is good, it does not have any bad odours, I just have a thing about not trusting well water for immediate drinking. I can cook with it, but it is so much easier and makes me feel so good to just go and get a pot of beautiful, cool rainwater from my barrel.
I want to bring a few good gallons of the rainwater into my home for use during the wintertime, for human consumption. I know that water can and will go bad over time. My simple question to a very long and convaluted post is this.
If I were to put one drop of chlorine into a gallon of water for storage, would this preserve water? I know city water is chlorinated and the human being drink this "preserved" water. One drop of bleach into a gallon of water would not harm (well, I hope it would not harm, that is a very small ratio of chlorine to water).
Would this work to preserve water for some time? Is there other, better methods of preserving this water gathered in my barrels? I need to know. Because I will be bringing in rainwater for storage. It can't stay outside, it will freeze solid. Thoughts here on my thoughts would be listened to with great interest. So bring the comments on! Tell me if you think my process of thought is off the wall, if it is good, I am a big girl and can take anything said to me, smiling. Beautiful and wonderful days, CynthiaM.
