Graywater Re-Use

Sorry I have not posted yet today, but I have been buried - in a compost heap of my own. So, as I was eating scraps for lunch... I stumbled on to an article written by Carol Steinberg and it is awesome. I assume since many of you read the drivel I write, you've probably already read the good stuff and this will be a repeat for you. But, I want to re-purpose it here for you and then link it to the site where I found it. Don't want to take credit for this - this is good work by Ms. Steinberg. What is it - Ms. or Mrs.? I always thought Mrs. meant married and Ms. was not. But if you don't know, what is the proper salutation? In this day and age nothing would be right. Mrs. would be offensive, Ms. is undoubtedly offensive and just shouting out her name like a football coach "Steinberg! nice article now drop and give me 20" is not cool. Carol is too informal. See where we are? NOWHERE'S-VILLE. We can't move in the name of offending someone. Anyway the article is on re-purposing graywater from our showers and laundry for use in the garden. And, she gives us some great ideas for gathering water which we would otherwise waste... Great stuff here. By the way - I am not putting in the entire article it is too long - This is an excerpt.

As many regions’ water costs rise, more people are asking if the water that flows down their drains after bathing and washing—known as graywater—can be used to water gardens. Increasingly, state permitting authorities are saying yes—with conditions.

In Arizona and New Mexico, homeowners can drain graywater right onto their lawns and landscapes. In states where laws are more stringent, especially California, underground graywater irrigation systems—some involving sophisticated water sensors that direct water to where it’s most needed—are popping up. You can help the earth and reduce bills by installing a system yourself. Though regulations vary by location, setting up a fairly simple water-reuse system in your home is becoming easier and more common.

More than soapy water: A graywater overview

Preparing graywater requires a few basic steps: draining it from the house to your graywater system via pipes kept separate from toilet drains; filtering out fibers and greases; then disinfecting the water and treating its carbon. You can take care of the last two parts—disinfecting and treating carbon—by setting up a system in which graywater drains under a few inches of soil, gravel and plant roots. The plants and soil will naturally treat the carbon and disinfect the water.

Though kept separate from what’s flushed down the toilet—called "blackwater"—graywater still can contain bacteria and pathogens that could cause illness, although the small amounts present in most graywater are a low risk, according to a University of Massachusetts study. Graywater also contains carbon from oils, soaps and skin. As in all organic compounds, that carbon will decompose, potentially causing odors and clogging the air spaces in the ground. Health officials advise draining graywater under three to 18 inches of soil, where soil bacteria decompose carbon and destroy pathogens—and where plant roots can drink it up.

State regulations for graywater vary widely, so check with your municipality to be sure your system is legal. Some states consider kitchen-sink and dishwasher drainage blackwater because it contains grease, nutrients and food bits.In most states, graywater cannot be used above ground without a special permit. In nearly all states, a graywater permit requires submitting results of a soils test and an approved plan

If you’re renovating a bathroom or building a house, consider installing graywater drainage pipes—even if you can’t or don’t plan to use graywater now. In the future, water recycling will likely become the norm as this resource gets too precious to throw away!

Three easy ways to treat carbon

Although plants can disinfect gray

water, pouring carbon-laden graywater directly onto your lawn can cause odors and clog drip-irrigation emitters. Avoid this by keeping graywater oxygenated so fast-acting aerobic bacteria can consume carbon and pathogens. Specialists recommend three ways to treat graywater’s carbon: (1) add an air diffuser to your surge tank, (2) design systems that cascade water, or (3) simply apply graywater only to gravel, course sand or well-aerated mulch, all of which have lots of air spaces for aerobic bacteria to work.

A typical graywater system includes:

■ A surge tank to which all graywater first drains. This tanks equalizes and cools graywater flow so it doesn’t inundate the system with a deluge of hot water. A septic tank or 55-gallon drum, this also serves as a grease trap if the scum is periodically skimmed.

■ A filter to remove clogging parti

cles such as hair. You can buy a filter (see "Resources," below) or make one with a nylon stocking. For grease and sludge, use a grease trap—essentially a box with a baffle that holds back scum so it can be skimmed out.

■ Porous substrate, fluffy mulch or aerated tanks to promote fast-acting aerobic biological decomposition.

■ Irrigation components such as perforated pipe and drip-irrigation lines that get graywater to the plants.

■ Thirsty plants to use up nutrients and provide root systems that support microbes, which decompose carbon and germs in graywater.

Graywater At Work
Several types of systems use graywater efficiently.

1. Shallow gravel or sand trenches: After filtering graywater in a surge tank, drain it into 18-inch-deep, gravel-filled trenches planted with water-loving species. This California-approved solution is relatively easy to permit in many other states.

2. Sand filter: Drained from a surge tank, graywater can be filtered through a basin full of sand before it’s piped to drip-irrigate an orchard or a greenhous

e vegetable garden. In winter, divert graywater to a below-ground leachfield to avoid freezing.

3. Constructed wetlands: Wet basins full of gravel planted with water-loving species such as elephant ear and papyrus can function as a treatment system before you apply graywater to gardens. Plants and roots should be removed periodically to clear the basin of carbon residue.

4. Drip irrigation: Dispersing graywater to an entire lawn via drip irrigation—usually small hoses or pipes perforated with holes—requires filtering and treatment to avoid clogging.

5. Branched drain system and other mulch-filter systems: Graywater can be dispersed underground via a system of pipes that branch out to holes filled with woodchips, which compost the carbon and particles. In rustic variations of this, perforated basins of woodchips and straw at the outflow pipe are used to filter graywater before it’s discharged to the landscape.

6. Surface drip and spray irrigation: Spraying or otherwise applying graywater above ground usually requires, by law, disinfection through either ultraviolet or ozone disinfection or a reverse-osmosis filter. This must be approved in all states except New Mexico and Arizona.

http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/Garden/2008-03-01/Graywater.aspx?page=1

Super article and great idea.

Upon further research, the Aussie's are killing us in this. They are all over it. I need to look into this a little more

Post and Beam Construction

When I get big and strong, I want to build one of these.

How cool is this? It is from a company called Sand Creek Post and Beam

Check out this website and dream a little.

I have a 10 x10 garden shed with a gambrel roof, which I am a little frightened of, so are my kids. But, if I had one of these I would have everything I need! Except HDTV, running water and some electricity. I can manage that though, so maybe I would have everything... I would need a refrigerator and somewhere to cook... and bath.. Well, I've put all that stuff in before, I can still swing this. Price is going up and my hopes are going down... but you gotta dream!

www.sandcreekpostandbeam.com

What a website address, a few more words and it would have been the first websiteaddresssentence.com

Soil Test Kits

Are they worth it? Sure...why not?

I decided to try one of these out. I bought the one at ACE Hardware for $21.99, sure glad I am given to impulse, cause I could have saved $7.00 less shipping buying on the web. I.D.o.I.t.

So, Mr. Lollipop grabbed it and was so excited to test for phosphorus and potash you'd thought I was given a lead role in Rocky 8. I would have played the guy pushing the wheelchair back and forth as Rocky's fists of arthritis bruised some shill's kneecaps. Adrian would have been there at the ready with his defib device...

So, like Rocky I took a swing at the soil, knowing, if I did not test it and need to buy $150 worth of soil amendment swamp waste that Madonna uses, I was not "really" doing the right thing for the garden. Argh!

I bought the Rapidtest Kit (seen below) and well, it was so chemistry-looking and technical, I simply could not pass it up. The moment I saw it though, I KNEW, I was going to buy it and get results I could have predicted, yet, still had to spend the money. Cause! what if my soil was deficient. I would be terrified. In this economic climate why add another worry?

I get it home, quickly test for nitrogen and viola' - perfect!. I test for phosphorus and viola' - perfecto. I test for potash and viola' - perfecto!!! I threw the pH test away. My soil has proven to me over and over, that I could drop a meatloaf in the ground and out would pop a meatloaf tree. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm, meeeeeaaaaaatlooooooaf treeeeee!

Have a ketchup tree next to it and when it was windy the perfect union of trees if there ever was one. Oh wait, and a well of beer too.

Conclusion - if you have land that used to be a Jiffy Lube, test your soil. If you look around and see a lot of nothing, growing in your area, I bet your soil needs help and your local nursery can tell you what to add. Otherwise, I am sure it is just fine. Buy a couple bags of Miracle Grow soil amendment, it will make you feel better and your younger plants might just like it - regardless.

Heirloom Seeds

I have read enough and tasted enough heirloom grown vegetables to know there is a huge difference in taste than those that are not. This year we've planted basic Roma tomato's along with cherry tomato's, but we also planted five heirloom varieties. I am anxious to see them and taste them...

I have been surrounded by farming my entire life. My family is from Nebraska, where we farmed hundreds of acres of wheat, milo and alfalfa. I remember as a young boy traveling back to Nebraska during the summers and my folks dropping me off at the homestead and saddling over to Estes Park, CO for time alone. My sister and I would stare at each other thinking; "As soon as I can, I am going to knock your block off" Sure enough, we did, then we settled in to farm-life. Up at 5am for and a snack and out to the Combine. In at 7:30am for breakfast. Back out for more harvesting, in for dinner at noon. Back out for harvesting and then in for supper at around 6:00pm. Hard living, but good living.

Once on the west coast we settled in Salinas and I worked in the fields for many, many summers moving sprinkler pipe in the fields. Lettuce, onion, cauliflower, sugar beets, broccoli... we grew many of the staples for large produce houses. Foxy Lettuce, Bunny, T&A... Antle... Getting dirty, planting seeds, watering the fields and harvesting has been apart me longer than I have been on this earth.

So, to grow food in your backyard is smart, honorable, healthy and, well.... just good for you. Plus it doesn't get any better. So, I want to grow food that when planted - on my table, people not only notice the difference they want it for themselves and go off and become gardeners themselves.

Which brings me back to heirloom seeds. Find them, plant them and enjoy them. Here are some links to various seeds companies...

www.surviveandthrivesupply.com

www.heirloomseeds.com

rareseeds.com

I would push you to the last one... if I was shoved up against a wall and told to eat a tomato from Safeway.

One 4th of July Tip...

My tomatos were going nuts. I had purchased those spherical upside down funnel wire mesh holder-upper, but realized quickly, these things are not going to do the job. So, off I motor to Navlets a local nursery and begin looking over the wares as it relates to tomato supports. The choices were...

Super expensive, powder coated funnel wire meshes - $27/ea and come in a variety of colors.

1" x 1" redwood stakes in a pack of 6 - $6.99 per pack.

Bamboo articulating fencing, which is really cool, but again is $16.99/ea.

I settled on 1 x 6 bamboo posts - loose, which were $1.49/ea. I bought six of them and used some wire at home to knit them together. I personally think this is the least expensive way to go and the coolest. In order to drive them in deep, I actually used a steel foundation stake and drove it into the ground, then came in a drove the bamboo. It worked perfectly and I got out of there for under $10.00. It supports 4 tomato plants - currently, but is now infinitely expandable and can travel in any direction.

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Creepy...

Besides the fact our chickens have been free to roam the garden since 8 am ( it is now close to 11), they have eaten every spider along "Spooky" fence there is. Yes, we have one of those. You know, the fence that is slightly rotten on the bottom and has spider webs everywhere. Well one of the chickens pulled out a Woolly Mammoth of spiders. It was the size of the chicken. They all wrestled for it ultimately tearing the spider from limb to limb and devouring it in no-time at all. While this a creepy, nothing compares to this...

http://www.duncraft.com/Feeders-Houses-Baths-Foods-W117C202.aspx?gclid=CPvt8aeLupsCFRFMagodmhgHAA

Why do we insist on having talking Avatars, are people too creepy? Too expensive? Too large a file? I think this is Animatronic hell. "Hi buy my bird feeders and they will attract pterodactyls and then you won't sleep cause you'll be thinking about my talking head" ( you need to read this with one tone and a little herky-jerky). Why do people think this is cool? Let's think of the market. Outdoorsy people, farmer-like, gardners, possibly older.... 35+ Do we (me included) think this is a sell?

Anyway, I think my point is... chickens are incredible pest control. I have read where farms no longer have flea problems due to chickens...really this is all too cool. Manure, pest control, food and fun. My Aussie is fun, but leaves a lot of poopy to haul, that is worthless and sheds everywhere. Thank goodness he is scary, cause it keeps the creepy door to door sales people from peddling their $100 a pint citrus colon cleanser.

In The Garden

Those of you who are new to this blog, don't know I have chickens too. Here is a picture of the chickens in garden. They ate bugs, weeds and pooped in the garden.. who cool is this?

So, here - they are free and are acting like Tom Hanks upon returning from his Island Experience, in Castaway, accept they don't appear nervous, pensive or sad because their Rooster married someone else and now have a chick. Anyway, they are happy and eating every bug in the yard, plus they are eating weeds!!!! How cool is this, natural weed control?
Interesting thing happened - they got startled by another bird... Blue Jay and they all hid under the corn and layed perfectly still. I thought they all died at once. With Jacko, Farrah, Ed, Fred Travalena and Billy Mays dieing, maybe the awful trend hit my chicks!!!!
More to come

Carbon Storage

So Han Solo was frozen in carbonite - I think..

I am sure there is some Star Wars freak that actually has the chemical chain to replicate this.... Anyway, As I was rambling through the web this morning I read an article from Purdue University on carbon storage in Chestnut Trees.

Move over, "The Christmas Song." Chestnuts are doing more than roasting on an open fire—they are doing their part to help save the world.

A recent Purdue University study reveals that chestnut trees may help reduce the amount of carbon in the environment.Douglass Jacobs, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources, discovered that the American chestnut tree grows faster and absorbs more carbon than other hardwood trees.“The American chestnut is an incredibly fast-growing tree,” says Jacobs. “Generally the faster a tree grows, the more carbon it is able to sequester. And when these trees are harvested and processed, the carbon can be stored in the hardwood products for decades, maybe longer.” Jacobs compared the American chestnut with the black walnut, northern red oak, the quaking aspen, red pine and white pine in four sites in southwestern Wisconsin. In nearly every case, he found that the American chestnut grew faster—with as much as three times more aboveground biomass—and absorbed more carbon than the others, says reports by Purdue University.“Each tree has about the same percentage of its biomass made up of carbon, but the fact that the American chestnut grows faster and larger means it stores more carbon in a shorter amount of time,” says Jacobs.There are few chestnut trees in America; however, after a fungus-induced blight crippled many of the trees in their natural zone about 50 years ago. But new efforts to hybridize the remaining American chestnuts with blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts have resulted in a chestnut tree that is about 94 percent American chestnut with the protection found in Chinese species, say experts at the University.Jacobs says the hybridized trees could be ready to plant in the next 10 years. Since trees absorb about one-sixth of the carbon emitted globally each year, Jacobs says increasing the number of chestnut trees could make a considerable difference in slowing climate change.“This is not the only answer,” Jacobs says. “We need to rely less on fossil fuels and develop alternate forms of energy, but increasing the number of American chestnuts, which store more carbon, can help slow the release of carbon into the atmosphere.”

So really, our environment has all the answers, we just need to use them.

Inaugural Urban Suburban Farmer Post

This blog is dedicated to getting off the grid... we will discuss and banter about, gardening, wells, small hobby farms, solar, wind-energy, foraging in the yard for food... you name it, we'll talk about it.

I don't know who's home this is and don't care... But WHAT AN AWESOME IDEA! Forget your lawn and grow food!