rainwater, anyone?
The roof is leaking. Of all the places in this vast craft barn, it drips on my left shoulder as I sit at the computer. I shift a foot to the right and place a wine cooler under the leak. This is definitely the rain everyone has been waiting for.
Anne was on her way to the Co-op to swap over our spring water bottle when this morning’s deluge really hit. Outside the butcher shop, Mark and Toby were trying to stop Pip’s wooden planks from floating away. Toby asked Anne why she needed to go to the shop for water, when it was falling out of the sky. He reckoned the rain water would be great to drink. So she placed the 15 litre bottle under the gutter overflow and it slowly filled up. We stood out there, adjusting its position to best accept the wobbling stream. There were bits of spiders web and stuff floating around in it, from the gutters, but we figured we could filter them out after.
water surges out of the downpipe and into our 15L bottle outside the butcher shop…
…but how much can you actually get in that little orifice?
Lucas adjusts the bottle to collect more water…
it’s a constant process of adjustment…
We lugged the big bottle back to the craft barn, where we improvised a funnel and filter system for decanting it into a smaller bottle. First we tried with coffee machine filters, and then Anne pulled out an old stocking to speed up the process.
Anne makes a funnel for decanting the rain water…
Anne decants the rain water…
Lucas pouring a glass of Keller’s finest rainwater…
And now, for the taste test!
Unfortunately, the water tasted terrible. Perhaps there had been a birds nest stuck in that down pipe, or it was the spiders’ webs and washed down roof particles.
So, then, off down to the shop to buy some more bottled water…
May 2nd, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Hi Lucas
I could get addicted to reading your weblog. I loved the description of the med students’ presentation not being “high art” – after all they are med students not art students & with only one public health physician (me) and one GP (Myra) and the rest of their colleagues (an assorted bunch but none that I know of with performing arts backgrounds – tends not to be such an advantage during the med school selection process) to give them constuctive criticism on their performances at Friday arvo rehearsal, what level of artistic merit could one realistically hope for?
I am amused by your water procurement processes. Having worked for a short stint in the section of the health department responsible for overseeing drinking water quality, I learnt that the regulation and monitoring of tap water supplied by the Waster Corp is far more stringent than those that apply to bottled water which is classified as a food product. I stick to drinking tap water which is cheap, microbiologically and toxicologically and safe and if the chlorine smell gets too much, I just sit it in the fridge or on the kitchen bench for a day or so before drinking to allow the chlorine to evaporate. Rain water collected off roofs is definitely not safe to drink or palatable (as you found out) unless the roof has been cleaned and very well flushed.
It was great to meet you and thank you for your presentation on Fri am and for coming to our dinner. I hope PBL, and the study-of-a-study-of-a-study were as stimulating for you as you first anticipated. Jan and Pallas have volunteered to write an article for the Pipeline about their experiences at Keller. It could be a bit of a hoot if you wrote one about the med and anthrop students and published it in the same edition (another study-of-a-study-of-a-study!).
Let me know when you have an exhibition at IASKA and please send me an invite.
Happy watering ….
Donna
May 10th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
[…] So I did just that. I submitted my (largely unedited) blog entry from April 30, as well as Donna’s suggestion itself. I arrived at the Pipeline office fairly early this time, so […]
July 3rd, 2005 at 12:44 pm
[…] reader, often chiming in with sage advice and fact-checking, for instance during the great water-potability debate… Here’s her question: Hi Lucas Great idea to […]
September 13th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
HI LUCAS I WAS BORN IN KELLER AND VISIT A LOT. I THINK YOU’RE A CLOWN BUT IT’S NICE TO SEE SOMEONE HAVING SO MUCH FUN IN SUCH A DESERTED TOWN I HAVE NEVER YET NOTICED ALL THE BINS,WORRIED ABOUT RAINWATER OR FOLLOWED THE TOWN FROM THE STREET SIGNS BUT NOW I GUESS I WILL HAVE TO.P.S HOW MUCH OF A TRIP IS JEFF. SEEYA