This was the second most rainy day of the year, so far. 28 hours of solid rain and counting. Good time to take stock of the water situation here at the cabin after a year's experience.

The springs were as seasonal as I'd feared. After running strongly all Spring, the main spring ebbed and died in the Summer months. By mid-July there was no remaining source of potable water. If I had not been away so much over the summer it would have been worse. As it was, I needed only twenty gallons of water hauled from neighbor Lee's well.

The large cistern was filled in a single night during the most rainy period this Spring, and provided wash water for two months of the summer, and that only lowered it by a quarter. So I could have been less sparing with it, and not relied so much on rain water catchment for supplimental wash water.

Today I replaced the pump, so I can use the pressure tank and have running water in the house. I could have done this earlier, but what can I say; I enjoy hauling buckets of water, when it doesn't involve breaking ice. In the winter when there's firewood to haul instead, I'll enjoy the indoor plumbing.

Also today, I may have finally fixed the pipe to the large cistern properly, so it won't only fill at the heaviest rain times. Along with the ability to cross-pump water from the small to the large cistern, it should be easier to keep it filled, and I might be able to reduce the turbidity enough that it's potable eventually. Will see.

I don't live in a dry region, but this is a relatively dry place for the area. It's been interesting to get a taste of what it'd be like to live somewhere where water is actually scarce.