From water insecurity to offgrid, solar pumped, gravity flow 1000 gallons of running water.

I enjoy hauling water by hand, which is why doing it for 8 years was not really a problem. But water insecurity is; the spring has been drying up for longer periods in the fall, and the cisterns have barely been large enough to get through.

And if I'm going to add storage, it ought to be above the house, so it can gravity flow. And I have this 100 watt array of 20 year old solar panels sitting unused after my solar upgrade. And a couple of pumps for a pressure tank system that was not working when I moved in. And I stumbled across an odd little flat spot halfway up the hillside. And there's an exposed copper pipe next to the house's retaining wall; email to Africa establishes that it goes down and through the wall and connects into the plumbing.

So I have an old system that doesn't do what I want. Let's hack the system..

(This took a year to research and put together, including learning a lot about plumbing.)

Run a cable from the old solar panels 75 feet over to the spring. Repurpose an old cooler as a pumphouse, to keep the rain off the Shurflow pump, and with the opening facing so it directs noise away from living areas. Add a Shurflow 902-200 linear current booster to control the pump.

Run a temporary pipe up to the logging road, and verify that the pump can just manage to push the water up there.

Sidetrack into a week spent cleaning out and re-sealing the spring's settling tank. This was yak shaving, but it was going to fail. Build a custom ladder because regular ladders are too wide to fit into it. Flashback to my tightest squeezes from caving. Yuurgh.

Install water level sensors in the settling tank, cut a hole for pipe, connect to pumphouse.

Now how to bury 250 feet of PEX pipe a foot deep up a steep hillside covered in rock piles and trees that you don't want to cut down to make way for equipment? Research every possibility, and pick the one that involves a repurposed linemans's tool resembling a medieval axe.

Dig 100 feet of 1 inch wide trench in a single afternoon by hand. Zeno in on the rest of the 300 foot run. Gain ability to bury underground cables without raising a sweat as an accidental superpower. Arms ache for a full month afterwards.

Connect it all up with a temporary water barrel, and it works! Gravity flow yields 30 PSI!

Pressure-test the copper pipe going into the house to make sure it's not leaking behind the retaining wall. Fix all the old leaky plumbing and fixtures in the house.

Clear a 6 foot wide path through the woods up the hill and roll up two 550 gallon Norwesco water tanks. Haul 650 pounds of sand up the hill, by hand, one 5 gallon bucket at a time. Level and prepare two 6 foot diameter pads.

Build a buried manifold with valves turned by water meter key. Include a fire hose outlet just in case.

Begin filling the tanks, unsure how long it will take as the pump balances available sunlight and spring flow.