Recycling water question.

In talking with Bob (the resident chemist) this morning around feeding he tells me that H2O2 is extremely volatile/reactive and therefore must be kept in the fridge and the freezer would be better if you are keeping it for any length of time, once opened. Also make sure it is a dark container. And keep it away from any fertilizer/manurer - remember it's job it to tear organics apart - and that's why you have a hard time buying it! Once it has been exposed to the air then it is safer.

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Goat milk soap & Wool products
www.littlemeadowsfarm.net
http://littlemeadowsfarms.blogspot.com/

Also keep in mind that Joseph Jenkins' Humanure Handbook has quite a bit to say about grey water and even setting up small ponds and lagoons to handle that resource.


So far as H2O2 deteriorating with time, I've had this 30 gallon drum on the concrete floor in my shop for almost ten years. It's still 3 quarters full, or better, and it's potency certainly hasn't suffered.
So far as keeping it away from the compost pile, that would be good advise if it was concentrated at all, but, by the time it has been used, one cup to 500 gallons of water, it is a beneficial oxidizer to the pile and not a detriment.

Interesting that you made that statement. Cause reconsidering my priorities is what I'm trying to do. It's not easy when you have a spouse that thinks it's not worth her time and since it isn't a video game the kids don't have much of a interest in it either! But I'm trying my best and I keep preachin about it.

Cherish your wife, even though she be slow to see the value of self-sufficiency.
I lost my Dearest, the most worthy homesteading partner a man could dream of sharing this life with, almost two years ago.

All that I can tell you is, never give up, and always set the example through patient, yet diligent leadership. I have raised my little ones without tv, videos, etc....and they are troopers.

I say again - grey water goes off with (not much) time. What you'd be making would be a pool that's worse than stagnant, but absolutely stinking. You'd need to make an elaborate filtration system, probably tied in with beds of reeds. Google "reed bed greywater" and "reed bed graywater". That's possible, but it's no longer cheap and easy. It's much simpler to just re-use the grey water for flushing toilets, or on the gardens and orchards, as you produce it. Oh, yes - you can use it for washing floors too.

Incidentally, most professionals count kitchen wastewater as black water - equivalent to toilet flush - because it's so high in organic matter washed off plates, pots and pans. It's also high in fats, which close up soil pores and waterproof the soil. It's best run through a grease trap (Google it - like a little septic tank) that lets most of the fat rise to the top and stay there, while the organic waste rots down. Then run it to a little leach field of its own that you don't mind relocating or redigging every few years because the fat has destroyed the soil's permeability. Every few months you'll have to take the lid off the trap and take the grease off the top of the contents. Check monthly at first, but the change of each season is generally good for a domestic greasetrap.

Woggle, right now we hold the kitchen waste water in a large bucket before it goes out onto the compost - sometimes that bucket doesn't need dumping for 2-3days, in that time I haven't seen any oils collect on the surface. Perhaps it is the way we cook and eat but I will have to experiment with this to see if I can collect any oil off the surface. As to our proposed project - besides running the grey water from kitchen sink (dishwasing to still go to compost pile), shower and washing machine we are also planning on collecting the rain water off the roofs in cisterns sized to collect the first 10", the remainder we propose to join the grey water into a pond. In doing the maths we will need to build a 20x20x4' pond. Yes, we would use reeds, contained cat-tails and other plants at the front end for filtration and a waterfall for aeration. I had hoped to be able to divert the water directly to the garden and eliminate a pump but we can't see a reasonable way to do this. In our calculations we generate about 150 gallons weekly of waste water so Bob figures this will really just offset evaporation. The pond is down slope from the garden but only about 125' and a pond this size can supply all the irrigation needs, fortunately Bob spent a few years in water treatment (manufacturering not municipal) so he'll be able to do tests, even so I will be sure to follow up on the issues of grey water on soil.

__________________
Goat milk soap & Wool products
www.littlemeadowsfarm.net
http://littlemeadowsfarms.blogspot.com/

If you are not gardening large scale all months of the year, why go through the expense to store it?

Do yourself a favor and start with a rain barrel system. That alone would probably meet your gardening needs. Build a little bench for 55 gallon food grade barrels (from soft drink factories) and hook them up to your rain gutters. With three rain barrels, a 10 minute steady rain will give us 150 gallons. Why would you need more than that?

The bench gives you gravity to carry the water by hose to the garden where it's needed.

http://www.gardeners.com/Rainbarrel-...ault/5497.page

http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conser...in-barrel.html