Transcript of Hut Hamlet Work Project: Ferrocement Cistern Tank Gets an Upgrade

Good morning on the cusp of spring and summer.

Today is an exciting day. Not only is it my favorite little person’s first birthday, but also we’re having a neighborhood work party to continue building this ferrocement cistern which is where all of our beautiful water comes from so.

We all drink the spring water from this land which is just such a honor and a blessing and I really feel how you know to to bathe in clean water to like wash my body and wash my thoughts and you know drink and cook with clean water is like what a gift and what a privilege and so we’ve had to learn over the years how to take good care of that, you know.

There’s got to have be some systems it’s not like we just get to automatically turn on our faucet and then there’s water so.

This here this big tank which is burmed into the earth is a ferrocement cistern tank. So this tank was built um in the style of ferrocement like 20 years ago and then it didn’t get any maintenance other than just you know checking the water level and so on until about two years ago.

So it was 18 years old didn’t need any maintenance and had been feeding our entire neighborhood which was about 20 people for all that time and then we last or two years ago we got down in there and we cleaned it out and filled in some cracks and we drained the whole thing and like pressure washed it and took care of it but then now we have more people in our neighborhood and legally we can’t have more than 24 people on one one water source so we had to get creative and what we’ve done is come together to build a new cistern so that we can have that’s going to get filled from a different water source so that we can be you know following all the proper rules.

So today is us continuing to work on this new beautiful cistern so what happens with a lot of things in our neighborhood is that we have a sign up sheet we have a work party someone volunteers to cook lunch people volunteer for shifts and then we get together and make it happen so here we are this is the construction site we left some offerings here back in the fall before we started to dig this hole and now we’re building this new cement cistern how many gallons that is a cistern hold…

Hey Paul! Paul. Paul how many gallons is the cistern how many gallons is the cistern?

10 000 more or less.

10 000 gallons that’s a lot of gallons so now we’re going to have about 20 000 gallons of capacity in our neighborhood.

So how’s this go,,,,,Yeah so there we are so what you do is you put you put up some structure you pour it we poured a cement slab then we put up some structure of rebar and wire and then we just used cement to travel over that to make it the shape that we want so you could make I mean you can make really anything out of fear of cement at any shape sometimes people use cans like squashed cans to fill that in and so yeah yay for collaboration cooperation and learning what it takes to be able to take care of the water you know meeting us in the middle of where we where we are and where we’re going and yeah so this is the midway strategy so in a lot of gratitude also for the like intergenerational aspect of it like this brother Paul we wouldn’t be able to do without him he’s been here since the dawn of time helping us figure out how to make these things happen and you know and then all these laborers and you know all that has to come from somewhere and the children have been up here and it’s just been really sweet we’ve all been learning and having a really joyful time .

So celebrating that happy birthday to my favorite little person.

The post Hut Hamlet Work Project: Ferrocement Cistern Tank Gets an Upgrade appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

(Transcript from video):

Courtney Brooke: Good morning Zev.

Zev: Good morning.

Courtney Brooke: What are you doing?

Zev: I just took the cover off our solar hot water panel. It was covered for the winter and now the sun is hitting it. I let water in and that’s going to be heating water up so that we have nice piping hot water in our sink throughout the warm season.

Courtney Brooke: So that water gets hot in there and then where does the water go?

Zev: Then it gets pushed by the gravity from our high spring cistern which is about 60 vertical feet above the house pipe down here. It gets pushed by that pressure back through that cover pipe and into our hot water tank which is on the second floor of the house . Then it just is stored there by gravity to feed down into our sink in the kitchen and the sink in the in the other bedroom

Courtney Brooke: So there’s no pump?

Zev: No pumps.

Courtney Brooke: no electricity?

Zev: Yeah that’s right. It’s not quite passive because water is moving but yeah it’s a solar panel called a pt50 which has these four inch diameter metal  tubes inside that have enough water that they can resist some freezing in the spring and fall  but also have enough surface area that they can get enough surface area to volume ratio from the sun to heat the water up to like 140 degrees or something.

Courtney Brooke: And is the water like hot all the time?

Zev: Not when the sun’s not shining.

Courtney Brooke:  Ohhh.

Zev: Yeah, but it’s there. Our hot water tank stores the hot water for a good 12 or 18 hours hot enough for washing dishes. So, it’s only if we run into two or three days of rain that we have to worry about having enough hot water. Yay!

Courtney Brooke: Happy spring.

Zev:  Happy spring.

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His work was popularized when he published pictures comparing water molecules that were subjected to positive and affirming thoughts with those subjected to negatively charged thoughts. The molecular formations of the former were dynamic and beautiful, while the later were discordant and chaotic.

Here’s a video of my dear friend, Courtney Brooke, giving thanks to the water in our beautiful village.

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Wherever you are, may your waters be flowing free, nourishing your body and soul, and feeling the love and gratitude of our hearts.

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