Forever House #29

The tank to be relocated from here to the new pad

Sunday 29th September, 2013
We are moving a tank from it's current location on top of a tank stand Andy built, a long time ago. I seem to write that phrase alot!  

The Water back-story:
Back then, we placed it at the highest point of my Share, and laid a two inch poly pipe all the way from the Cataract River at the bottom of the share, three hundred metres or thereabouts, to give the eventual house gravity fed water. We built the stand from scavenged poles, flitches and other materials from around Currawinya, and Andy cobbled it together in true bushy builder style.
We dragged the tank behind the car from the shed that is now the mosaic studio. I bought a smaller tank for that shed - and it still sits there, full of water and largely unused. Once on the stand, we filled the large tank with water pumped from the river. That full tank sat there for a long time...! largely unused. Over time floods came and went, on one occasion sweeping the $5000 fire pump away. Thank God, Peter Mac was able to salvage it for me; although, there has been no great need to put it back down at the river and set it up for pumping again. To be honest, the idea of having to do that each time I want water does not excite me much.
The other thing that resulted over time, is that the tank stand buckled under the weight of the full water tank, and we had to release the water for fear the stand would collapse.

Jess's tank and the helpers who helped bring it down the hill

The Forever House roof gradually took shape, two hundred square metres of water collection capacity right there. For every one mil of rain, each square metre provides one litre of precious water if caught. As I said earlier, the next attempt at providing water to the Forever House site was when I bought a 22000litre tank from my cousin Jess and his partner Kartyarni  when they sold their share up on the heights of Currawinya. With the help of many we moved that down the hill to find its resting place at the southern corner of the house. That has been a wonderful thing. It feels great to have it there, full of water. That's where I cart my water from for mudding. So another large tank collecting the other half of the roof's water will be amazing.
I felt the back-story needed to be told to show the efforts that have already been expended around water, by myself and the wonderful people who have helped me at each stage along the way.

 ~

Down comes the tank - destined for greater things

The work done this weekend almost completes the meandering route the water has taken to get to the Forever House.The pictures tell the story of moving the tank from the stand to its final resting place beside the house.

Dave brought us a trailer load of sand for our pad

In transit from stand to new pad

Sliding the tank off the trailer on to the pad

Ta Da!!! Tank ready for the next dump of rain