Rainwater collection

 

-- Quote of the Day -- 

 

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“Money tends to represent our worth, our lovability - is the #1 excuse for everything we cannot have or be. …The root cause is our relationship with money. …I was asked me two questions: what had happened with money growing up. …And he asked me if money was a person, who would your money be? …Suddenly my whole life made sense; I could see that if I was at an event and this big scary biker was there, I would have my eye on him all the time so that I could create the greatest distance from him. …Suddenly I saw money as a relationship, it was deeper then an idea.” 

~ Morgana Rae

Today’s quote originates from the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio episode that aired back on Dec 18… titled: Can Money Love You Too

 (*Click on the title to access the full discussion)

-- Positive News --

Back on March 9 we published an article that was submitted to us re: water conservation around the home over on our blog. I’d like to encourage today’s listeners to check that out when they have a chance simply by scrolling through the archived posts for March 2013 and looking for March 9^th. You’ll also find that we have a very detailed chapter in the book two of the Trash Talk It’s Easy To Be Green series on the topic of conserving and reusing water around the home and office – which can actually save you a lot of money, while helping the environment as well. In that chapter we also briefly cover rainwater collection.

Rainwater collection is a fantastic way to reduce tap water consumption, using barrels, or a series of connected barrels, placed under the eve troughs drain pipes around the roof of buildings, including sheds and carports or covered parking shelters.

Perfect for ponds, where chemicals in tap water can damage the ecosystem, and for gardens as well; these can also be used for emergency fire fighting water and drinking water (if purified first). Rain barrels work really well for soaker hose applications. Collecting rain water benefits the environment in other ways as well - by preventing the water from rushing off structures like shed and home roof systems, we keep the water pure. You see, normally the water would cascade down driveways and streets where it would pick up garbage and vehicle liquid drippings and all kinds of things on route to the drainage system. With rain barrel collection we prevent that from happening and instead use it to water our plants, where the water will seep to the water table through the soil and sand and rocks like it would in nature.

There are many cities now offering subsidy programs and rebate programs for rain barrel instillation so check out your city website to see if your area has a program in place and if not, perhaps you can email the city and ask them to consider putting one in.

Locally we had a toilet replacement program that we took advantage of… we had finished our basement area and installed a 2-piece bathroom down there last year, choosing a dual flush toilet. When I heard of the rebate program this year we rushed off to the hardware store to purchase another dual flush toilet for our master bedroom 2-piece bathroom. Soon afterwards I learned that there are conversion kits available for converting older toilets to dual flush. So we’re going to do that with the other toilet that is fairly new, but still uses 6 liters per flush. With a dual flush we’ll only be using half that – 3 L – per flush and 5-6 L for solids. So we can save about 70% of the water we used to use – fresh clean tap water being flushed away.

I’d love to install a gray water system one day, which we had in another house about 10 years ago… the gray water collected from kitchen, laundry and bathroom sinks and bathroom showers/tubs simply drained into the forest near that home. One can also filter it through a pond where pond plants purify the water and you can reuse some of it around the garden or landscaping as well.

 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!