Many people have asked me if wells are feasible here at the Village on Sewanee Creek.  My response is always “yes, you can, but I wouldn’t and didn’t”.  This guy explains why better than I can.  Where wells are drying up in drought-plagued Texas, rainwater collection still works.  That’s the 1st reason.  But after that, pure, soft, quality water is an even bigger reason.

Four of six families in the Village now have significant rainwater collection and storage systems.  So, I guess you could say we’re another “Tank Town” with a nicer sounding name.  During the drought that even hit Tennessee for about 6 weeks this summer, we used ours to water the greenhouse and our large garden, switching temporarily to city water for our household needs.  That saved us hundreds of dollars and our garden when chlorinated city water would have been too expensive for gardening on our scale.

One of the benefits of living in the Village is that your neighbors prepare and share as much as you do.   My brother, George, and I both have large systems with a combined 15,500 gallons of storage capacity.  George has a larger roof than I do, so his system is more robust than mine.  By linking and sharing systems, we can increase balance, capacity and resiliency even further.  We recently installed another 500 gallon tank that takes the overflow from George’s tanks when they are full.  It is positioned just above the orchard.  Through a gravity feed drip system, the orchard is now insulated from droughts too, with pure, unchlorinated rainwater that would have been lost.

Rainwater harvesting is the first critical step in becoming self-sufficient.  I’m so convinced of this that I offer a 10% rebate on the purchase of land in the Village to cover the cost of implementing a great system.  We have built several systems.   George is a chemist and water expert, having run the water quality lab for many years at the Coachella Vally Water System (Palm Springs/Palm Desert).  So, we help Villagers with water quality expertise as well.  If you would like to see pictures of our systems or more information about what we have done in the Village to become inter-dependently self-sufficient for water, food and other stuff, contact me here for access to our “members only” online database.