Studying the water problem

Prev    Next

Continuation of the series about going off the grid.

If you can't get water, you cannot sustain a life anywhere, much less on a desert.  Such is the biggest problem confronting me as I contemplate the very prospect of settling on my newly acquired land.

I figured originally that I can collect water from rain as it falls.  This may be problematical since it may be a bit of a problem with the sandy soil in the region.  The sand shifts with erosion as the rain runs downhill.  It turns out that some folks say that the topsoil is rather thin at the surface with a hard pan region about a foot deep below.  That's good and that's bad.  Good in that a solid surface can be found at about a foot deep worth of digging.  Bad because a plant's root system cannot go beyond it.  The ground won't support trees, yet I saw some out there on my visit.

The only way to resolve what kind of soil I have is to go out there.  It turns out as well that this is the time of the year for rain.  The rest of the year is really dry.

I thought of digging a well after watching a series of videos on the subject.  Unfortunately, the water table in the region is much too deep for that.  I will have to put off the idea of digging a well until I can get a much better idea of what conditions prevail on my property.  Until then, I will have to figure out a system that enable me to gather up enough water to live on.   It won't be much, as I don't intend to do large scale farming at all.

Update:

Still studying the water problem as of 9/17/2014.  I'm pleased to say that progress has been made.