Happy Dancing Turtle Blog

When looking at sources for water, it's often easy to overlook exactly how much water falls on our heads, especially in our region. Collecting rainwater is one of the easiest ways to turn a liability into an asset.

This article on rain catchments from Do It Green: Minnesota came across my desk(top) this morning (thanks Quinn!) and I've decided to highlight a few important things when considering creating a rain barrel. 

Uses for catchment water:

1. Watering your flower garden, landscape trees (NOT recommended for vegetable gardens), or houseplants
2. Washing your car, driveway, sidewalk, or deck
3. Flushing your toilet.
   
   

There is a debate on whether rooftop collected rainwater is potable or not, so use your best judgement. If you are using "composite" (or tar, fiberglass, asphalt) for your rooftop, then it's really not all that safe. If your shingles are made of these materials, there is too much petroleum residue for it to be considered "potable." Run a comparison to your tap if you want to be sure. There's a local water testing facility in Brainerd that will run the same tests that municipalities are required to request. 

Things to consider when planning your rain catchment system:

1. Permits or permission as needed (from your landlord, local government, or neighbors)
2. Infrastructure like gutters and downspouts as necessary
3. Size of water-containment vessel
4. Space available for the vessel
5. Quantity of "roof-real estate"
6. Quantity of captured water that can be used.
   
   

If you need to find out how much water your roof will collect, you can use this handy rainwater collection calculator. This will help best when you're looking at the size of your water barrel. Crow Wing County has a great FAQ on rain barrel basics (especially for this area). 

If you want more help on creating your rain barrel-catchment system, you can check out the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District. 

World Water Day is March 22. This is a day where we take a closer look at our water consumption habits and see what we can do to increase reduction (that makes sense, right?) However, looking at my driveway currently covered under a foot of snow and ice, I can make a general statement that we are nowhere near using up our allotment of earthly freshwater (less than 1% of all water, btw). Therefore, I declare that we must drink and use up as much water as we can.

In fact, since there is an abundance of water (an...overflow, if you will) I decided to see in what ways I could increase my family's water consumption. Drinking more water equals less water (snow up here) that will fall on my driveway. Here's a couple ideas that could help. Feel free to use them, too!

1) Right now, my teenage daughters are limited to ten minute showers. I could increase that usage to 30 minutes. We definitely want to stay away from those low-flow shower heads that average only 1.5 gallons per minute. The average shower head runs at 2.5 gallons per minute, so that would equal about 70 gallons each shower. 

Now, that's a good start but I think we can do better.

2) Looking at the low cost of tap water, I figure we need to start drinking from bottles exclusively. I stumbled on the answer to the question: How can I get my family to drink more water more expensively. There is a company that offers up a "bottled water of the month" where you can buy by the case.

Since I have eight people in my family, and each person will drink 1.9 liters per day, I'm thinking that to fill our needs for drinking and cooking, we'd need 38 cases for the month (and, of course, we'd prefer sparkling!) The monthly rate is $30 per case per month which totals approx. $1,140 a month before shipping. That's a huge difference when considering the miniscule costs of using mere tap water. At a rate of $.0025 per gallon, we'd spend a measly thirty cents a month if we drank only tap water.

So! Not only can we drink bottled water from the Scottish highlands (shipped to us across the ocean), but we also get to pay much more than regular old tap water.

This is a fantastic opportunity for me, I realize. But, I think there's more I can do to increase my water usage.

3) I know! I've heard of people suggesting to harvest rain water to water their lawns and flowerbeds. That's rubbish. I've got my very own sprinklers and water hoses that can do the trick. I bet if I left my sprinkler on all night (and all day and all night, etc.) I'd have the most lush, the most soft, and the most walkable lawn in south Brainerd.

Never mind that collecting rain water through rain barrels and high berms on your property will essentially negate the need for extra water for your lawn and garden. We've got water to use up, remember! 

With these methods in place, I think we can clean off my driveway. All it will take is a concerted effort by everyone. So, please ignore the pleas from those leftist hippies who argue that there is only so much drinkable water on the planet. Ignore the gripping pictures of those children that must lug filthy unfiltered water for hours instead of going to school. Now, just remember that if we all do our part, there will be clean driveways for everyone. No more will we have to suffer through a winter (and snow!), even this far north. 

I don't know if you readers know this, but I have six kids, aged 14 years to 20 months old. Five of them are going to be in school this year. Along with the transition from summer to school bedtimes, my wife and I are trying to find creative ways to get our children ready for school. We even thought of back to school essays, (What I'm looking forward to most this upcoming school year), but there was a small riot. We are lucky, however, that every grade sends each student's family a handy-dandy supply list. One thing that stood out was the claimed need for not only single subject notebooks, but also composition notebooks and loose leaf paper. I thought we were going to a paperless society. (Not soon enough, it would seem!)

Moving on. Looking at these lists, they don't say to go directly to Target/Walmart/BigBoxStore. No, they leave where you get these supplies up to you! This is America, after all. So, you have to make decisions based on what your goals are. Do you want to get your list checked off as inexpensively as possible, or do you shop with sustainability in mind? 

We went to Target thinking they would offer the most sustainable options for us in the area. We went to their seasonal section and found stacks of notebooks, folders, trapper keepers, plastic molded lunch boxes, pens, pencils, and much more. And the prices! Wow, they were very inexpensive. I looked at my wife and smiled, thinking our school supply trip would be done in one stop. But, after a closer look, it became clear that the least expensive options, while bravely priced, do not follow our goals of sustainability.

From my experience you can not get both, easily. I'm sure that Target carries 100% post-consumer recycled notebooks and reusable cloth lunchboxes. But, you're going to have to hunt them down, and you most certainly will not be paying the same low-cost as the other notebooks.

So, where do you go if you want sustainable choices? 

We had the choice of several big box stores in the area. Of course, they all were running back-to-school sales.

These stores are hell-bent on getting you into their store they they will most assuredly sell the items on that school supply list at a loss. For example, you could get single subject notebooks for as little as 17cents and folders at 10cents a piece. Looking closer at these items, though you can see that they are most certainly not helping to extend the loop.

But, this is where we as consumers have the final say. We can say we prefer sustainably created products by voting withour pocketbooks. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to vote with their pocketbooks, and that's where 17cent notebooks come in handy. Are they the long-term solution? Do they solve the sustainability goal? Of course, not. But, it certainly shows how little our common goals of sustainability and Target/Walmart/BigBoxStore's goals do not meet. 

Buy locally. Use thrift stores. Reuse supplies from last year. Think twice when buying new clothing. These are all different ways to bring sustainability into the school year.