water

I see some people water the plants just on the surface of the dirt and think that is just fine because it looks wet...
that is not the way it works I tell them,
but then they want to know how much to water each plant,
and that is a great question

due to the well pump not working this morning(will talk about that in a bit) I decided to water the plants from a 55 gallon drum

and yes, I just happened to have one sitting around full of water,

and I also have a pump to get the water out

also I need a battery (or solar) for this pump

I keep it in a bag for easy carrying

so the tubing I have likes to stay in a coil, and that is bad for getting the last of the water out of the barrel,
so I put a 2 foot long stainless steel tube in it to keep it straight (I hope it does not fall out into the drum...)

I think it will work just fine

just plug the battery in and it is going,
it is not as strong as the regular hose pressure, but then it is a tiny pump
find them here http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G18959
and yes I did change the connector on the end of the pump to match all my other things

what I learned from this is that it took 2/3 of the 55 gallons to water 28 bowls of squash plants, a row of radishes, a row of sweet peas, and a few other things
so I am only giving my squash bowls about a gallon each of water,
maybe I should try for 2 to 5 gallons each when they get bigger...
but plants will wilt or have leaves dye off when they are not getting enough water,
my grapes did that yesterday with the dry wind they got.

also the issue with the well pump being not so good,
I put the 55 gallons of water in the garden to water it when the pump breaks,
but being a survival garden I will have to have other plans for water should the power fail
and I have thought about it lots,
there is a generator here that can run the well pump (about 2KW at 240V)
but I sure can't run that off any solar setups I have, and I can't store that much fuel.
so came up with a plan,
the little pump that I used to get the water our of the 55 gallon drum is tiny enough to fit down the well, but it can't get wet or it will break,
the pump can not be at the top of the well due to physics and the currant air pressure on earth as the water level is just to deep,
so my plan is to use an empty 2L bottle as a float for the pump, and have it just over the water level,
I have an extra 100 foot roll of that tubing you see in the pictures,
and I can just run another pump every 50 foot up the well,
and for the top section of tubing I can just run a hose as it will not have super high pressure on it.
and that should get me the 150 foot down the well to the water,
the pump installed now would also have to be removed, and that is no small task...
but that all brings up another issue,
earthquakes can break a well and you will loose your pump when the well shaft is cut.
so I clearly need other solutions for the long run.
and that solution will likely be to just grow everything in the winter when it is wet and raining

here is the toad that is living in the box that the water faucet is in

I toss extra insects to it when I find them

now time to go plant fenugreek