I Never Thought I Would Use 16,000 Litres Of Water Per Day

[@kelleymcbride4633]

I started watching you 7 years ago while I was working in commercial agriculture. I was also a beginner microgreens farmer at home and your videos really got me going. My family and I lived in a small apartment in Denver, we have since moved back home to Texas where we now own a little homestead farm and I owe you a great debt of gratitude for all the knowledge you have shared. It is no small part of how our lives have become richer and more self reliant. Thank you!

[@tehehe4all]

I love that your son is following along and taking notes; I expect to see him give us an updated presentation by next spring

[@robohonkey990]

Your indicator sprinkler off the overflow is a brilliant idea. Thanks for sharing that.

[@eagleknightMex]

What I loved most about this video is your little loved one, as Dr Bruce Lipton/Dr Joe Dispenza had mentioned children learn the most between year 0-7 and having them there with you while you are doing the explanation they are absorbing all the knowledge, you will see when they are older their consciousness and knowledge after living in nature will be impressive

[@annawell2517]

Omg this very is so cute 🥰. Your little man is following you around and watching what you’re doing.. priceless ❤

[@mwmingram]

That's a very dear little chap keeping you company Curtis.

[@StyroHome]

Curtis, watch your children closely when out of your fenced area, I live on a mountain top in Rock Creek and often come across Cougars in my yard...

[@LeonidBerejansky]

8:25 That is the best analog overflow detector ever created in our Universe and on Earth in particular!!!

[@krisf5247]

That’s a great idea about the overflow sprinkler👍🏻 I’m a plumber and geek out over this stuff

[@RRYANWATT]

We live in the bush in New Zealand. Tried a food forest and the wildlife (birds mostly) ate everything that shouldn't be there. Now we grow everything in greenhouses.

[@TheBelrick]

What envirofreaks don't realize is that industrial farming uses chemicals for a reason. We are in competition with life on earth as every life is. Unless we protect our food, other forms of life will take it as its own. Its calculated that pre-industrial farming, 1/3 of all farmers produce was eaten by insects and pests. That is a lot of starving to death people. We go used to living with plenty we literally forgot HOW we got to live with plenty. Well we are rediscovering reality all over again

[@RRYANWATT]

@@TheBelrick I think people are going to realise pretty soon lol. I see a few comments on the Internet telling people to just plant some damn trees. Don't think they realise that the trees are and will be planted where there food is grown. Goodbye meat. I hope trees taste as good as meat 🍖😂

[@TheBelrick]

@@RRYANWATT mate, i live in taranaki. Bought my ark 5 years ago. I grow food not sugar. lamb and beef

[@RRYANWATT]

@@TheBelrick yip you can live on that better than any food forest I reckon 🍖 🙂👌 I'm thinking about raising goats because they'll eat whatever grows here naturally. 🐐🍖👌

[@TheBelrick]

@@RRYANWATT goats make great pets by the way. If you have gardens and hedges, watch out as they will eat everything like you say My property produces grass, my flocks turn that into food. Which i trade for other types of food.

[@TheLizardKing1967]

Curtis is a Genius. Excellent video!!! Much Love!!

[@westonpm]

It's been awesome watching your informative videos over the years. I've migrated to the mountains too, for homesteading. Thanks for sharing all that you take time to show us all, as well as the things you find out that can save us learning the hard way. Beautiful ecoengineering designs and homestead 🙏👍

[@irrision]

You could expand that cistern setup and and use your excess solar in the summer to pump water up the hill to a holding pond (which is also nice for fire fighting) and run it downhill after sunset through a water turbine into a lower holding pond? Gives you another energy storage method.

[@MartinPHellwig]

Have you noticed any difference in your plants when growing at this altitude?

[@-S-K-Miller]

Curtis, have you considered that it might take more than a growing season for your trees to establish? At our place, i to un-prepped ground, we've planted fruit trees and sugar maples. They're establishing, not great, but they need a couple of years. Top dressing is helping too...

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Yes sir, trees take years.

[@Sunnythefarmer]

great walkthrough, looking good man!

[@deepghetto8968]

No rain collecting? Could do an underground tank that would withstand frost for winter water needs. Could use the solar panels you already have to collect rain. Could create a water collection structure above the cisterns. Still have the well as backup, but it would be no effort water that doesn't have the excessive calcium. Saves spending energy on the pump pushing water up the mountain. Best water security would be to build a pond. I know you said it's a lot of rock so the cost benefit there might not work out. Just some ideas. Hope they find you well.

[@offgridcurtisstone]

All these things cost money and time. If our water source at the moment is working fine and I have a million other things, what would be the point of harvesting rain water in a high desert?

[@willh7690]

Your shadow is cute af, I've got one myself but it was nice to see someone else's, 😆 👍

[@jennifervert2601]

What filter did you use on your main line... I so need that for my system🌻

[@mobilephone4045]

We have a very similar system, except everything is filtered before it goes into the cistern. The calc kills everything over time, even the inline taps, so we get rid of it straight out of the well. I'd suggest looking at this for your next phase, otherwise you will be regularly replacing everything because of the calc.

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Once our house is tied in, I will do that as well. Right now, it's a little tricky with the way I have it set up.

[@jennifervert2601]

What system are you using?? It never occurred to me that it would negatively effect more than the plumbing

[@mobilephone4045]

@@jennifervert2601 I don't understand the question? What do you mean what system? We are talking about plumbing and water systems.

[@perriefauth7421]

What are you irrigating because that’s a lot of water? I would be checking for leaks if you aren’t irrigating.

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Check the last 4 videos.

[@mra4107]

With your dry environment, have you considered building some terraced ponds on your site to collect snowmelt (Sepp Holzer style)?

[@infsophie]

For using such an amount of well water, will you worry about your well might get dried sooner than you expect? Bedrock aquifer needs very very long time to replenish (definitely not human's life span)... We start to do dry-garden experiment and surprisingly found out lots of veggies can still thrive without irrigation. Probably considering reducing water your veggies and you'll found out they're not as bad as you thought. Well water is very precious and limited resource. We live in the Rocky mountains and treasure our well water a lot, some of our friends' well already dried.

[@offgridcurtisstone]

You never know. As we continue to improve the land here, our water demand will diminish.

[@K4HLER]

I assume you disconnect all this prior to winter? Lucky you have access to so much water. Same here in Ohio. I have a natural springs that feed a stream that flows into my backyard. I pump from the stream for irrigation.

[@bradcavanagh3092]

What's your evapotranspiration rate like there? It sounds like it gets pretty high to be irrigating so frequently. Are you running sprinklers to keep things cool as well?

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Yes. It was to keep things cool and the fact that we have a long way to go with building up the soil, and it's windy on some hot days.

[@dpdecenzo]

Will you experiment with SIP raised beds to conserve water? I vaguely remember during the 4 tank installation that you felt that the gravity-fed 16,000L might last a week if there was a problem with the well pump or the electricity.

[@offgridcurtisstone]

No. Not really a need to spend a lot of time and resources on being extremely conservative with water, when we're tapped into an endless aquifer.

[@caseyarmstrong7064]

I know quiet a few videos back, pretty much at your place you switched from drip tape/tubing to overhead watering. And I just saw a quick clip in this video that you still use overhead watering, at least I’m some spots. My question is do you change your watering when growing summer crops. Tomatoes, squashes, we’ll I don’t have to tell you, due to disease issue fro overhead watering. Because I run drip tape, and would like to go to overhead myself, just due to ease of watering, and not messing with drip tape every time. Thank you

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Yes, I talk about it in the first one of these 6 videos.

[@caseyarmstrong7064]

@@offgridcurtisstone thank you for the reminder.

[@caseyarmstrong7064]

@@offgridcurtisstone could you please send me the link, or tell me exactly witch one. Thank you

[@westonpm]

@@caseyarmstrong7064 If you go to his videos, it says "1/6". They are all labeled in recent videos when listed by age

[@deniseferron3397]

I’m a city girl through and through, so I know nothing about farming and irrigation. Please explain to me why you need to push the water 85 feet uphill into four 4,000 litre cisterns when you could just pump it directly from the well out to the fields. Is it a question of water temperature, flow control or something else?

[@westonpm]

Gravity feeding from the mountain top location, conserves more net electricity using gravity pressure than turning a well pump on more frequently. It also warms the water a bit, but is just an added bonus.

[@cassityart7001]

What leaf/wood chipper do you recommend?

[@jakezeller9499]

Ye ole gravy tank. I’m looking forward to it!

[@francoislachapelle5067]

Hi Curtis, what’s your main use for the cannabis?

[@Kuderik]

it pays for all the cool stuff lol

[@BuckarooBandit138]

Personal?

[@offgridcurtisstone]

I smoke it dude.

[@joshbaer9438]

Inspiring to see your progress

[@SmallVansBigWorld]

Why did you implement the gravity feed system if you have a pump? What is the main benefit of this setup? Why not just a large bladder tank tied to the pump?

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Because gravity can supply more flow rate at once than the pump.

[@paulbrawn9063]

You might crack all your white PVC pipe once fall/ winter comes and temps fall below freezing. You will need to insulate the pipe.

[@campcreekhill8933]

It survived last winter

[@orcoastgreenman]

He decommissions the above ground pipes in october, before first hard freeze, presumably letting all the water drain out.

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Ya, it's all good. As long as we drain it out before November.

[@allthingsgrowing]

Am curious. Ever have any issues with animals chewing on that black pipe? Not being buried would be an issue where I live. Field mice think pipe is tasty!

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Just a bear once. The field mice don't seem to be interested.

[@allthingsgrowing]

@@offgridcurtisstone interesting. Thanks for the reply. Dig the setup. All your work is mind-blowing. Can only imagine riding shotgun inside your brain for a day.

[@markthompsoncpa]

Cannabis for edibles??

[@cyborgbear7269]

Are there any good books pertaining to gravity flow systems? I'm trying to minimize the electrical power needed to provide water to my livestock.

[@OBRfarm]

What was the water filter??

[@StyroHome]

Have you tested the system's Winter capabilities...

[@offgridcurtisstone]

No. We don't need this water in the winter.

[@ilzitek2419]

What happens to the tanks in winter? Do you drain them? Don’t they freeze?

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Drain them.

[@dantheman9135]

Keep Crushing and inspiring

[@MORT-zf3qb]

Hi Curtis, just wondering why I can't see these on from the field tv? Cheers Steve

[@offgridcurtisstone]

They're not they're yet.

[@philup6274]

What are Liters? The standard was too much?

[@offgridcurtisstone]

In most other countries people joke about how ignorant some Americans are. Don't know what liters are. Pretty funny.

[@Godlovesyou2024-b1n]

Do you have wine berries?

[@AlexLemberg]

Do you mean grapes? Or Currant berries?

[@chasmarischen4459]

AWESOME!

[@stricklyorganics9634]

Hey Curt Evan tho I do love what you are doing,today made made think,it’s awful lot of infrastructure,water usage ect for a family of 4…and seems a little overkill,I don’t know your future plans but to suit my lifestyle I’d try concentrate smaller but more effective if that’s possible…but that’s just me..

[@offgridcurtisstone]

Fair enough. You do you.

[@manthonychavez]

Market Gardeners are brain dead. Can't escape the annual mindset. Literally could replace all those greens with a few perennials. Rather waste their money on NOTHING.

[@westonpm]

@@manthonychavez Are you lost? Bet you are saying this from your city apartment, with no homestead to be found. Clearly didnt watch the video, if you missed the huge orchard he's currently creating. Keep your bad vibes elsewhere 👍

[@silverjohnson3163]

​the shape of your homestead looks like the shape of Texas from the air

[@TheBelrick]

Why does he grow cannibis?

[@bdmenne]

Medicinal

[@TheBelrick]

@@bdmenne it is?

[@steelersrthebest100]

Awesome

[@barakcohen3612]

Look up magnetic water it can save 30% with amazing results

[@RestaurantResidential]

Can you imagine being in a place where you are allowed to do that, holy fuck, bureaucracies are a fucking load of shit.

[@schex9]

That's 4200 gal per day

[@albert_kempowillenborg1707]

No farm animals bigger than chickens?

[@jarodmohling2969]

He's got plenty of hunting grounds... that aren't surrounded by corn fields. Also, as far as I know animals hasn't really been his thing. Chickens are his first foray into animals. Start small right? Lots of bang for the buck.

[@ddhgerlb]

As cool as all this stuff might be its not something that most people could imitate. I realize that not his intention but i prefer to see projects that are more let's say "available" affordable and doable for the majority of people. No hate, just saying.

[@westonpm]

With an adjustment to scale, it could be. Plenty of different videos for those looking for more entry level designs. His is goals for sure, though

[@jordanwanberg753]

Is your soil drying out twice a day? That seems excessive.

[@jarodmohling2969]

High desert and rocky. "Dry" is relative primarily to usage, availability, and productivity. He talks about context quite often. In his situation it seems appropriate. In my low lying clay soil maybe not so much. Also keep in mind he's still fairly new to his property, there's probably still a fair bit of experimentation and learning going on.

[@jordanwanberg753]

@@jarodmohling2969 I'm not trying to be overly critical here but I garden in Utah with often less than 350 mm of rain. I use mulched beds and I can water twice a week. Even last year which was our worst drought basically ever.

[@ragnhildwadahl6171]

Why do You grow cannabis?

[@offgridcurtisstone]

For decoration ;)

[@mud3455]

yes, more cannabis.

[@AlexLemberg]

😂

[@Fajita.tamale]

Ayy I didn’t know Curtis was growing cannabis now, been a couple years haha