TrainChaser
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When traveling, I usually carry more water than I think I'll need. Only one time did I run short, and it made me rather nervous, at Organ Pipe National Monument, in the summer, with the temp at 112F.
Since then, I've learned a few things. One was harvesting rainwater.
Now, let me say that I am totally familiar with America's chronic fear-mongering. Americans have been taught to fear many things that they don't need to fear, and told that dangerous things are perfectly safe. But I've learned to think for myself, and evaluate information from multiple sources. You are free to do whatever you want.
Rainwater has been harvested for centuries. It is the cleanest water source on this planet. It has been said that rain is about twenty times cleaner than any ground water, anywhere, including glacier water. If you'll drink water from a well, you shouldn't fear water from the sky, is my feeling.
If you can collect rainwater on a clean surface and let it flow into a clean container, you can drink it immediately, without any type of purification. Let me repeat that: Rainwater + Clean Collecting Surface + Clean Container = Clean, Safe Water for Drinking. Rainwater is distilled water -- not laboratory grade, but clean enough to drink.
If you have water purification equipment, you can save it for when you really need it to purify ground water.
Acid Rain: You hear about acid rain, but you don't hear much about what it does -- or doesn't -- do. Journalists make it sound like poison. Most acid rain comes from burning fossil fuels (oil and coal) and volcanoes. When moisture forms in this contaminated air, it falls as acid rain. Normal rain has a pH of about 5.6; acid rain usually has a pH between 4.2 and 4.4.
Please note that the pH of beer, wine and stronger forms of alcohol usually range between 3.0 and 4.0. (Awful, huh? They must be poison!)
Over time, the acidity of the rain lowers the acidity of the soil and water, harming plants and aquatic animals because the acidity becomes higher than what they can tolerate. It can also damage things like buildings, statues and old gravestones -- especially those made from rocks (limestone and marble) – because it reacts with anything that contain large amounts of calcium carbonate.
Acid rain does not affect human health when you drink it, PERIOD.
To harvest rainwater, the requirements are few and simple.
* A clear area, free of overhanging plant material and bird perches.
* Collection surface – the two best ones are clear heavy-duty plastic sheeting and clean sheet metal, but anything can be used if it’s clean and not a major contaminant itself. Mylar emergency blankets and Reflectix can be used for the short-term, but they do degrade in sunlight.
* Collection containers like food-grade plastic buckets, thoroughly cleaned. Regular buckets are okay if you don’t let the water sit in them for very long.
* Fine mesh, window screening or cloth to keep bugs and blown debris out of the buckets. A clean old t-shirt works just fine. http://fivegallonideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bucket-water-filter.jpg
Supports for tarps:
https://surviveall.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/survive.jpg?w=273&h=194
http://www.primalsurvivor.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/collecting-rainwater-with-plastic-tarp-tent.jpg
http://www.primalsurvivor.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rainwater-collection-system.jpg
http://www.readytribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/maxresdefault.jpg
You’ve got plastic sheeting but no support? Find a smallish depression or dig one, or make a circle with rocks and lay the plastic over it, and weigh it down on the outside with more rocks or branches – just keep debris out of it: https://surviveall.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/survive.jpg?w=273&h=194 NOTE: You can’t use blue/etc tarps for this, they’re woven and won’t hold water for very long.
No tarp? Use what you’ve got; if it’s low, raise it to avoid splash contamination (just remember that 5 gallons of water weights more than 40 lbs):
Underbed storage containers or totes: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cy7yYRlsmwA/maxresdefault.jpg
Umbrellas (they can’t hold the weight of much water, so tip them so water flows into a container, or leave them upright and burn a ½” hold near the center): http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OZrZYUpbAnU/TMWfEyZzE8I/AAAAAAAABAc/bB96EHkT8eo/s1600/Picture3.jpg
Garbage can: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2c/a2/b4/2ca2b431db83e5fc5aea679d88b65230.jpg
For every inch of rainfall on one square foot of collection area, you can collect about 0.6 (2/3) gallons of water. Using a 10’x10’ tarp could net as much as 60 gallons from 1” of rain.
Texas seems to have more info on rainwater collection than I’ve seen anywhere online, 52 pages in .pdf format, not including the appendix. It was created for home/farm collection, but the basic rules apply: http://www.twdb.texas.gov/publications/brochures/conservation/doc/RainwaterHarvestingManual_3rdedition.pdf
Since then, I've learned a few things. One was harvesting rainwater.
Now, let me say that I am totally familiar with America's chronic fear-mongering. Americans have been taught to fear many things that they don't need to fear, and told that dangerous things are perfectly safe. But I've learned to think for myself, and evaluate information from multiple sources. You are free to do whatever you want.
Rainwater has been harvested for centuries. It is the cleanest water source on this planet. It has been said that rain is about twenty times cleaner than any ground water, anywhere, including glacier water. If you'll drink water from a well, you shouldn't fear water from the sky, is my feeling.
If you can collect rainwater on a clean surface and let it flow into a clean container, you can drink it immediately, without any type of purification. Let me repeat that: Rainwater + Clean Collecting Surface + Clean Container = Clean, Safe Water for Drinking. Rainwater is distilled water -- not laboratory grade, but clean enough to drink.
If you have water purification equipment, you can save it for when you really need it to purify ground water.
Acid Rain: You hear about acid rain, but you don't hear much about what it does -- or doesn't -- do. Journalists make it sound like poison. Most acid rain comes from burning fossil fuels (oil and coal) and volcanoes. When moisture forms in this contaminated air, it falls as acid rain. Normal rain has a pH of about 5.6; acid rain usually has a pH between 4.2 and 4.4.
Please note that the pH of beer, wine and stronger forms of alcohol usually range between 3.0 and 4.0. (Awful, huh? They must be poison!)
Over time, the acidity of the rain lowers the acidity of the soil and water, harming plants and aquatic animals because the acidity becomes higher than what they can tolerate. It can also damage things like buildings, statues and old gravestones -- especially those made from rocks (limestone and marble) – because it reacts with anything that contain large amounts of calcium carbonate.
Acid rain does not affect human health when you drink it, PERIOD.
To harvest rainwater, the requirements are few and simple.
* A clear area, free of overhanging plant material and bird perches.
* Collection surface – the two best ones are clear heavy-duty plastic sheeting and clean sheet metal, but anything can be used if it’s clean and not a major contaminant itself. Mylar emergency blankets and Reflectix can be used for the short-term, but they do degrade in sunlight.
* Collection containers like food-grade plastic buckets, thoroughly cleaned. Regular buckets are okay if you don’t let the water sit in them for very long.
* Fine mesh, window screening or cloth to keep bugs and blown debris out of the buckets. A clean old t-shirt works just fine. http://fivegallonideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bucket-water-filter.jpg
Supports for tarps:
https://surviveall.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/survive.jpg?w=273&h=194
http://www.primalsurvivor.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/collecting-rainwater-with-plastic-tarp-tent.jpg
http://www.primalsurvivor.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rainwater-collection-system.jpg
http://www.readytribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/maxresdefault.jpg
You’ve got plastic sheeting but no support? Find a smallish depression or dig one, or make a circle with rocks and lay the plastic over it, and weigh it down on the outside with more rocks or branches – just keep debris out of it: https://surviveall.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/survive.jpg?w=273&h=194 NOTE: You can’t use blue/etc tarps for this, they’re woven and won’t hold water for very long.
No tarp? Use what you’ve got; if it’s low, raise it to avoid splash contamination (just remember that 5 gallons of water weights more than 40 lbs):
Underbed storage containers or totes: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cy7yYRlsmwA/maxresdefault.jpg
Umbrellas (they can’t hold the weight of much water, so tip them so water flows into a container, or leave them upright and burn a ½” hold near the center): http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OZrZYUpbAnU/TMWfEyZzE8I/AAAAAAAABAc/bB96EHkT8eo/s1600/Picture3.jpg
Garbage can: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2c/a2/b4/2ca2b431db83e5fc5aea679d88b65230.jpg
For every inch of rainfall on one square foot of collection area, you can collect about 0.6 (2/3) gallons of water. Using a 10’x10’ tarp could net as much as 60 gallons from 1” of rain.
Texas seems to have more info on rainwater collection than I’ve seen anywhere online, 52 pages in .pdf format, not including the appendix. It was created for home/farm collection, but the basic rules apply: http://www.twdb.texas.gov/publications/brochures/conservation/doc/RainwaterHarvestingManual_3rdedition.pdf
