Downpour and fill-up

We missed most of the dramatic bomb cyclone + atmospheric river that blasted the west coast over the last week. These storms did a massive amount of damage over the region, including multiple feet of snow in the mountains that snarled traffic and caused horrific accidents.

We can usually expect the residuals of such storms to hit our inland area within a day or two. To that end, we battened down the hatches and prepared to hunker down for the duration. The rain moved in late Friday night, after I'd gone to bed. We had hopes the newly installed roof-runoff water tank, then about one-third full, would top off. Don (who comes to bed later than I do) planned to let the gutters drain the initial roof runoff (to clean everything) for about half an hour, then divert the runoff into the tank before he came to bed.

Thankfully we had no wind, but it rained and rained and RAINED and rained the blessed night long. Early Saturday morning before dawn, I laid in bed, listening to the pounding on the roof, and thanked God the livestock were snug and dry in the barn.

Or so I thought. When I went out to feed them, this is what I saw:

Well, no one ever said cows were bred for brains, as I always say. To be fair, by the mess left in the barn, it seemed their jaunt into the weather was fairly recent and they had, in fact, spent the night under cover.

I cleaned the barn, and while I dumped the night's leavings on the compost pile, the animals moved back inside.

Once the feeders were full, they all settled in to enjoy breakfast.

Even before attending to the cows, just after I got up (around 5 am, so still dark), I took a flashlight and peered over the edge of the balcony, where the outflow pipes from the water tank were just visible. I saw water flowing out of the pipes, which could mean only one thing: The tank was full to overflowing. Accordingly, I flipped the levers to divert the roof runoff from the tank back to the downspouts. Later I photographed the edges of the overflow pipes, no longer running:

This was the first opportunity to test these outflow pipes, and they worked beautifully.

Later, I lifted the floor hatch on the deck and unscrewed the access hatch on top of the tank. Sure enough, brim-full. Those are the outflow pipes, at the top-right.

Fifteen hundred gallons of water!

Even better, this is a passive and inexhaustible source. This much water will get us through long dry spells, providing both household and livestock water. And every time it rains, we can top off the tank.

Now that the tank is full, we'll add chlorine to keep it pure. We still have no plans to drink it directly from the tank until filtered (or boiled), but the peace of mind that comes with abundant water is impossible to underscore.