Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Water Catchment Tank








Hi I'm Barney, Dave & Peggy's

neighbor from across the road.







Well things are still progressing at a snail's pace but there is progress. We been doing more clearing which helps with air movement. In doing so we occasionally run across some very interesting photo opportunities. Just off our soon to be lanai is a tree, that we do not know the name of yet, but it has the craziest looking roots. Finding them, buried deep among the rest of what grows here, is pretty interesting. This first photo which may be hard for you viewers to appreciate because it is only a small piece of the whole thing but it truly makes you stop and wonder, is it tree or ............






To put into perspective from the top of the root ball to the ground is about 5 feet.



Well, we have a water catchment tank, yet another piece of the plan in place. We decided before we arrived to pack and bring an above ground swimming pool, We substituted the original style vinyl liner for a black potable liner. The potable or safe drinking water style liner will allow us, once we get better at this catchment process, to have ample storage for all our water needs. All that's left to do is the cover and plumb in a supply line, from the homes gutter system. We think it has better curb appeal than the standard corrugated galvanized tank. The cover frame which we designed from materials we bought here was a pretty successful project and saved us big money. The cover itself will be a complimenting light brown poly style cover with a long twenty year warranty. It is something we have to order from the mainland and have it shipped directly to us unfortunately the shipping cost is more than the product.....but we will still be saving by using this approach. a picture with the cover will have to come later.






















I must tell you we were and still chuckle about making it a swimming pool only because it is so hot and it looks so inviting but for now we stick to the plan and who knows one day we may decide on another for lounging with a cold drink and a good book.




Here was the process





There is actually two heavier courses beneath what was being spread here, some very large rock and then some 2 inch stuff. This is a first run sand mix that gets compacted well in place and then the number 4 sand, no rocks.







Here after compacting the vertical piers in place and laying the bottom rail all was level and ready for the wall.



















Ok one last compaction, in the rain, It make not appear to be raining but water was dripping from the top of my head, the reason for the silly grin....






The pool wall up in place, boy what a buggah the roll started at 200 plus lbs and just about the time was over help showed up. I've decided that was a good thing because no one working for free need be called upon for such a task. Besides there was plenty left to do and many thanks to Scott for his help with the vertical supports lots of screw driving..

















The frame work above the pool is my creation for a cover support. This will keep the tank free from debris the cover from making contact with the water. The cover is ordered and coming soon. Then it will be time for some plumbing and filtering. We've decided on a reverse osmosis system with the ultraviolet sanitizer for clean healthy water.



















The strawberry guava is ripening and we have been sampling the couple of varieties we have, they are plentiful and most folks think they should be eradicated . The tree itself grows quickly, it is also a very hard wood and I'm sure will come in handy later on for other things. We are told that the wiley pig loves them when they fall to the ground. Neighbors say that the wild pig can be a real problem ,though we have not yet seen any at our place .........YET ; ) boar and sow are usually accompanied by up to a dozen piglets why just today we saw two that someone decided to make road-kill of I know gross huh but they are a real problem here and are very destructive We have a plan for their coming to our home............LUAU hahahaha Actually many folks do hunt for the meat.






Well things in the garden have been struggling lots of different bugs eating all our favorites so we decided to erect a small green house. Here you see the beginnings attached to the container. I said the guava tree would come in handy....







This is a continuation of our garden mostly the plants that folks gave as welcoming gifts...Gosh we just love the banana trees and Japanese pumpkin plant has gone crazy believe it or not it is growing out of a little 8 inch grow bag the vines must be near twenty feet now and show no signs of stopping.









Same area but more around the curve of the driveway. Yep that is D road in the background or should I say Alula Road Mostly folks say D road.







A frontal view of the greenhouse note the lattice we thought it gave it some curb appeal....hahahaha








I've also been clearing more all the time this will be the view from the front lanai looking abit left gives you yet more examples of how rough the landscape is on a 500 year old lava field.

Thanks for stopping by and Aloha !!!!!