4Fords has 2 cisterns, and they both need a little work. One is 1,000 gallons and sits right next to the house, catching rooftop water. Pretty common in water-starved New Mexico. We emptied and shut it down for the winter because it freezes, but yesterday, Alan climbed inside and tightened the drain so it wouldn’t leak, then replaced the downspout inside the lid. The whole gutter system needs to be replaced, but that’s for another day. Maybe we’ll start getting some rain now, but the snow on the roof is melting also.
The second cistern is a 1600 gallon tank, mostly buried in the hillside above the house. Being buried means it never freezes and can be used year-round. That’s where the well pumps up to, 1,000′ away. It fills the tank allowing the water to settle and the hydrogen sulfide that is in all water around these parts to dissipate. Then, it flows downhill into the house when you turn a faucet on, creating a gravity-fed plumbing system. This tank is ok, but needs some TLC where snow melt and cows have pushed dirt down on the lid.
We plan to add a THIRD cistern, also buried, behind the house as the back-up for long dry spells. Having a well doesn’t guarantee enough water for gardens and irrigation: it will likely only pump a couple of gallons/minute, and only while the sun is shining…as it will be running on solar. Redundancy is the key in an off-grid home. There’s no city services to rely on.
I write this to point out 2 things: most of us take water for granted, and water is a precious commodity here in the Southwest (and much of the world). We waste so much of it every day: flushing good drinking water down our toilets to be dumped into sewage ponds; squandering quality water to sprinkle lawns where lawns shouldn’t grow and assuming that clean, drinkable water will always be there. Every day now I watch as the snow melts and sheets, drains, and trickles down into the arroyo and disappears downstream to the Rio Chama, eventually to land into the Rio Grande. I think about how I wish we could capture more of it and keep it here on this dry, sparse land. If you read about the efforts Los Angeles is making to preserve and reuse water, you’ll get an idea of the scope of this problem.
If this interests you, I invite you to check out Brad Lancaster: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/ I’m especially taken by the idea of Zuni Bowls:
4Fords Journal 
Water supply is one of the reasons I want to stay near the Great Lakes. I figure they will last my lifetime. I don’t have your industry for preserving/ creating my own water supply. I congratulate you!
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