College Hill Farm

  Water is an essential. You cannot survive without it. Having a source of water and a backup source of water is so important. So far we have discussed Gravity Fed Stream systems and Cistern water catchment systems. Today we are going to talk about wells. In Appalachia the water is very close to the surface, if you live in the river valleys. The first type of well we are going to talk about is a surface water well. Surface water is just that – water contained above the bedrock of your property. There are several ways to get at that surface water. When I was a kid we had an 18 foot deep hand dug well. The well was located about 150 feet from the Clover Fork of the Cumberland River. The river was running approximately 15 vertical feet from the top of the well. So the well was actually 3 feet below the river level at the bottom. The well had been hand dug years earlier than I can remember. It had a pitcher pump and a foot valve in the bottom of the well to keep the pump from losing it

  We are continuing our series about what homesteaders need for a successful homestead and whether or not you should buy a functioning homestead or start from scratch. Today we will be discussing water and in particular Cisterns. Most homesteads will not have tremendous rises on which to build a “gravity feed” system that will have a 300 ft head. In Appalachia where I am from there are plenty of mountains and streams from which to gather water and use gravity to create massive amounts of pressure. However, our homestead here in central Kentucky has some rises but not sufficient to generate the kind of pressures like municipal water. When we bought this homestead there were 2 old dilapidated barns that were too far gone for us to save. But one of the features of these old barns is that they had concrete cisterns that was there to catch the water that ran off the barn and utilize it for the homestead. One cistern is 10 ft wide by 14 ft long and 8 feet tall. Just so you know that cist

  Should we buy and already operating homestead or start from scratch? Well, I have had eight years to dwell on this question. It would have been so much easier had we been able to purchase an already established working homestead outright.   It might even have been easier had we purchased a prefabricated home and put it on raw land. But, we got the homestead we were destined to have. There are some real considerations that most people who have not lived this lifestyle or lived rural just never considered. I think I will do a multi part series on just this topic. There are so many aspects that can be explored. Today we are going to explore WATER, Mountain stream water to be exact. First things first, when you are considering a homestead and you have checked all the boxes on the location that fits what you and your family needs, the first thing to look for is water. No homestead in existence can function without water. Fresh, clean, potable water is an essential. Living in eastern Ken

There is a Rhythm to my homestead. There is a natural order of things. When things are out of order it seems like the world is spinning out of control. Back before all of the modern technology that we have today farmers and gardeners lived and died by that rhythm. The closer you get to nature the more you understand some of the passages in the bible. Don’t get me wrong, most of the authors of the Bible were wealthy men far separated from the daily rhythm of the farm if they wrote what was there or if they had someone else do it I don’t know. The presidents of today don’t write their own Memoirs they have a ghost writer. I wonder if it was that way back then. Either way whoever wrote this passage must have lived on a farm at one time.   "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to b